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For manual gear owners: What's your favourite gear?

3K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  ahmetdouas 
#1 ·
hi,

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

What's yours and why?
 
#2 ·
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.

So I would say 3rd and 4th are my go to gears.
 
#9 ·
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!
 
#10 ·
Nice thread idea

I’d have to say 3rd as well on my 2.0L Cooper S manual

2nd the car wobbles around a bit much for my liking under hard acceleration (torque steer? Sorry I’m not familiar with the terms)

4th is also nice but I’d call it the economy country road gear. Enough pull and engine braking but not revving too high either.

When I’m really pushing on I believe I change from 3-4 at about 80mph so 3rd is plenty sufficient as I tend to stick around 60-70 anyway
 
#11 ·
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
 
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