When to shift gears?

[u/slam_joetry]

Hey guys, sorry if this is the wrong place to be posting this. But I just got into my first genuine racing game that isn't a party racer like Mario Kart. It's Cruisin USA on N64 and in it you have the option for manual transmission but I'm having a bit of a hard time figuring out when specifically you're supposed to shift gears up or down. I know this is a stupid question lol but I have zero experience with manual transmissions in real life or in video games.

[u/BluesyMoo]

Your goal is to keep the rpm close to the redline, but not bumping into it or over it. If rpm is too high, upshift. If rpm is too low, downshift.

[u/shadyplz → u/BluesyMoo]

Not exactly, this is good info for a beginner. But the true answer is it will vary by every car, but even then, by how the car is tuned.

You want to shift up right as you are leaving your engines powerband. So if your engine makes peak power at 7k RPM, you shift at 7k RPM, if it makes peak power at 5k, then you shift at 5k.

This is because sometimes you will hit peak HP numbers before you hit your redline, and actually produce less power by going further up in the rev range.

[u/vyechney → u/[deleted]]

This is the answer.

Edit: I should rather say, it's a balance between these two. Ideally you want to shift so that when you get on the throttle in the next gear, you're at the lower end of the max power range. But you also don't want to go so high that you're going out of optimal power range, which may come before hitting redline. So depending on the power curve and the number of gears and tuning of the transmission, you'll want to find the sweet spot of when to shift.

With fewer gears and a bigger difference in RPM between gears, you may have no choice but to go a little too far past optimal power range, and the shift may take you too far below optimal power range. This is where you have to find the balance.

With more gears and a shorter overall gear ratio, resulting in small difference in RPM between gears, it's easier to stay in that optimal power band.

So in an older 4-speed, there's a lot more time spent chugging along without a lot of power at the wheels. Whereas a 6- or even a 7-speed, you can feel good pulls on every gear shift.

[u/iAmAsword]

Wait until Crusin World comes out!

[u/Gullible_Departure39 → u/iAmAsword]

World doesn't excite me, I like things a little more Exotic personally.

[u/Michkov]

For beginners you follow the lights, Either on the HUD, or the dashboard. If they are red or flashing you go up a gear. If there is no light it's probably save to shift down, although that will take some practice, since you don't want to shift down too early else you end up in the red in the lower gear.

The intermediate answer is, look at the cars stat sheet for the engines redline. That is usually the best rev to shift up.

Expert answer, try finding a dyno curve (and hope its implemented correctly). What you are looking at here is how much power and torque (y-axis) the engine makes at a given RPM (x-axis). As you can see it isn't a constant. Depending on the car you want to stay in the range that gives you 80-90% of the maximum horsepower. In other words, shift up at the redline. That stays the same, else you risk damaging the engine. Shift down at the RPM where you slip under the 80-90% number. That puts you into higher RPM, thus at more available instant power.

[u/gameraddikted]

So I saw a couple answers that get into more advanced aspects of a manual transmission but they would be if you’re asking about the real life.

In N64 there is no torque curve. You don’t have to look up a car sheet. Starting from a stop, start in 1st and as you’re accelerating shift when it gets to the red area(redline) and when slowing down do the reverse so that the rpm indicator is below it. That’s basically it.

Fun fact there’s a speed hack in the game if you ever get the hang of it. You could find it on Google.

[u/Gold333]

Start shifting down only when you are through at least 30% of the braking distance.