Re: 0-60 in 7.5 sec

["James C." <james.colton@uboc.com>]

It has always been my understanding, that to achieve maximum 
acceleration, you shift at or beyond peak torque, not at or beyond peak 
horsepower.  I have several articles taken from PCA's (Porshce Club or 
America) monthly newsletters that discuss this very issue.  Its a fairly 
technical discussion (if I had a scanner, I'd post 'em), but essentially 
if you wanna get to the top of your speed limiter as quickly as possible, 
you keep your RPMs on either side of peak torque.

If you think about this a little, you'll see the logic.  At 4500 RPMs our 
VR6s really haul.  But thereafter, those g's that are pushing you into 
your seat start to drop off.  This is especially evident in 2nd gear.  
So, beyond a certain point, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to keep 
driving your engine up to redline, esp. if you're racing some nut in a 
slammed Integra (let 'im pull away a little, and then blast 'im in 3rd :-)

The best thing to do, at least in PCAs opinion, is to get a diagram or 
chart of the VR6s torque curve and find each gear's peak point.  Once 
you've got an idea as to where each gear peaks out, you only take you 
revs slightly beyond the max point.  Then you shift and repeat the 
process for your next gear.

Unfortunately, I've never taken the time to find a torque curve for our 
car - otherwise I would post that, too.  But if any of you guys has one, 
I'd really like to see it.  Of course, you can always use the manual's 
peak torque specification, but that only gives you output for one gear (I 
think 2nd).  And torque changes for each gear you're in (just compare 
your acceleration in 1st or 2nd to your acceleration in 4th or 5th).

Happy racing!  BTW, if you guys are interested, I'd be happy to go to 
Kinkos or something and scan some of the more choice PCA articles.  They 
really are good and they have a lot of info on everything - from 
autocrossing to performance driving and tuning.

Have fun,

- - JC