Just thought to start a fun thread.... the more i drive the more i realise that my favourite gear is 3rd! This is on the 6 gears gearbox.
I love the pull that you get when you switch from 5th to 3rd when needing to overcome or just to give her a bit of a breather, without over speeding excessively. Cannot do 200 km/h all the time, not everyone is lucky to drive all the time on the German autobahn hehe
Haven’t driven the car as much as I’d like due to COVID, but from my little experience behind the wheel (1-2k miles) i’d probably agree with you.
3rd is a pretty elastic gear in my experience, gets a good enough pull low down, and it just keeps going in that respect. I can’t remember when we change gear in 3rd but it’s definitely above the speed limit even on the motorway!
On a country road I don’t find myself going past 4th gear to be honest, but I do downshift into 4th when overtaking on the motorway from 6th, just to pack an extra punch to the car I’m overtaking.
I was tempted to reply with ‘whatever is the correct gear for the speed and conditions’ but I guess that sounds a bit smug. I do know what you mean about third gear though, combined with the flexibility of the turbo engine it really gives you a broad range of speed with plenty of grunt.
Oh dear Sorry. The old classic of reading the post and not the title; that's my excuse anyway. In the manual Cooper S I borrowed from the dealer before buying the JWC, 3rd was indeed a good gear - engine has enough torque that you can make good progress at lower speeds and the gear is long enough to take you over the speed limit.
Depends on the road, for pulling on to motorways 3rd gives good pull from 50mph to 70mph. Where there are now some daft 20mph to 40mph or 60mph sections of road in the UK I find dropping down to 2nd can be better for accelerating or overtaking.
When we had our manual 3rd was always my favourite-in all the iterations we had-1.5l Cooper and the 2.0 l Cooper S Clubby. Reckon it's the same in our Roadster too though it's a v different animal/engine-but lovely in every way so far!
As an aside has anyone found 5th doesn’t get used that much? Im mainly talking about UK where we have 30 and 40 mph limits but nothing in between
PS here I’m not talking about fun driving but just bumbling along, being in the suggested gear for economy
When I’m driving at 30 in a built up area I’m in 4th gear (the suggested gear)
when into a 40mph area it asks for 6th...5th only seems for 31-34mph?
I often skip 5th all together whether I’m going up from 4->6 or down from 6->4
yes I know there are other countries aside from the UK with perhaps different speed limits but even still 5th seems a very niche gear...I wonder if they would have been better making 6th a bit longer so maybe only used from 55mph+ for economy at Highway / motorway speeds...then again the car is very economical so I’m not moaning
When I had my manual, 3rd. I used to pretty much always go from 3rd to 6th. Reverse is underrated as a gear - couldn't live without it, unlike any of the forward gears
Downshifting into 2nd from 6th gear going through all the gears with heal and toe when going off the motorway from 78 MPH to 34 MPH = ) (Don't downshift above 45 mph into 2nd gear on the Cooper D!)
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