Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods Hard Driving

God, I should even post this. I try and shift around 3K, and don't like going past 4K, unless I'm racing... Least I get good gas mileage.

Yes Deanne, we are alike. I am at redline as much as possible. I have an ATX, but I shift manually a lot to just kinda d.ick around with the car. I think I get about 225 miles in 100% city driving if I run it down to about 0.5 gallons remaining (about 16mpg). But if I drive like a sane person (hey, I'm 16 -- what do you expect ) I can get 21 or more. Sometimes if I'm on the highway, I can manage 32!!!

When cold, I shift at 2500

Warm, and It's 3500.

When driving crazy, (3X a week at least) I shift at 5500.

For some reason, I'm waiting until I hit 10,000 miles to hit 6500.

Mine's still pretty new (about 5,000 miles on her) , so I'm still pretty easy on her .
Cold - 3,000 rpms or less
Warm - 4-4,500 rpms under normal driving
feelin' racy - about 6,000 & a huge grin !
During my break-in period I was going NUTS ! For the first 3,000 miles it rarely went over 3,000 rpms & never over 4,000 rpms . I was bouncing off the walls till I was over 3,000 miles !! Now I'm lettin' her stretch her legs ... finally .

With my '95 SE I was a hard-drivin' SOB . I drove it like I stole it ! Usually hard ... very hard ! Redlines all over the place ... street ... drags ... auto cross . Wherever I felt it needed a good whoopin' ! It took it like a champ , what a great car . I hope my SVT turns out as good . Only time will tell . If not , C'mon new Mini Cooper "S" !!

I drive me Zetec hard as hell, at, or over the redline most of the time, i think im maybe too brutal to the poor thing... Im often surprised at how far over the redline it will go since i dont have a chip or anything..... and i have several times hit the top speed limiter, once during a race, luckily the guy was stuck behind me, or my 110 top speed would have left me way behind him.... blah

When its cold I don't go over 3000k rpm

When driving around town, I now shift no higher than 2k rpm

Usually don't take it to the redline unless I really have to. Now with the 3L torque is everwhere so thats really easy to accomplish. Just last night I was racing against another ceg'er in a SVT & to make things fun I was shifting at 3-4k rpm and still kept up...

Man I love this car...

I have beat on this car since day one. I broke it in the way it was meant to be driven, frequent 6000 rpm shifts. I would say every day since I've had it it sees redline at least once a day! It's now stronger than ever, thanks to the Vortech Haven't had a problem yet, at least with the drivetrain...knock on wood I usually get around 20 mpg city and 28-30 mpg hwy. I try and keep it under 3000 when its cold as well.

My 95 GL Tour has over 120,000 km and I still love taking the car up to 5000-redline. Everytime that V6 opens a little smile creeps up on my face. Gotta love that sound!!
It just doesnt feel right to shift @ 3000.
Alex
95 GL V6 MTX...was bone stock

If it did't see redline, I didn't drive that day!

Seriously though, I try not to go over 3k when it's cold. And I normally let it warm up (whether I drive it or just let it sit) for 10 - 15 minutes before I take it hard.

Damn, all you hard drivin guys shoulda been on the run in Oklahoma this weekend! Constant running at 5 to 6 grand range, hard shifting, lotsa twisties, all for over an hour and not to mention the 1 drive out to the back roads where we ran a contast 90 to 100 MPH with a few of us sprinting to 135-140. Awesome time at the OK CEG meet!!! PS- I drive hard almost all the time 4-5K shifts around town, a few redlines ever day.

Rick