As we know our cars accelerate the fastest when in "Lift" or "V V" or (cringe) "VTEC" or when "on the cam", etc. This means that for max accel you need to stay in Lift at each upshift. And for twisty stuff you'd hope to be near the bottom of lift coming out of a turn to avoid the jump when it kicks in and be ready for a burst of accel before the next shift.
We have an 8000 RPM steady state redline. And a momentary redline for about 1.5 seconds at up to 8600 RPMs. I think 8500 is claimed, but it actually seems to be 8600. In the chart below I put in the 8600 RPM column for each gear but it will only hit that for sure in 1-2. I suppose that the higher gears can briefly exceed 8000 but how much depends on how much speed they can gain during that roughly 1.5 second period. Note that our shift lights are coordinated with this transient limit and this can help you out.
In a given gear from low revs, you hit Lift at about 6200 RPMs. Once you are in lift, it will stay on as long as you are over 5800 RPMs. For best acceleration you'd generally want to shift such that when in the next gear you are at or above Lift. There is more to the shift point RPM than that but the step-up in torque during Lift is the main thing to retain.
Here is a chart I made using the data from the Road & Track article in the Articles and Reviews section.
Gear__8000__8600__6200__5800___SHIFT-AT-RPM:LIFT
1____42MPH_45MPH_33MPH_30MPH___8600
2____64_____69____50_____46______8600
3____89_____96____69_____65______7300
4___112____120____87_____81______7400
5___142____153___110____103______6500
6___160____172___124____116_______N/A
Now these numbers are rounded off and so forth but you can see that when upshifting into 4,5 and 6 it is easy to stay at or above 5800 RPMs. For example when shifting from 3 to 4 you need to be at a road speed above 81 MPH, looking at the 5800 RPM column for 4th gear. In 3rd gear that would be when you shift at or above 7300 RPMs, the rightmost column for 3rd gear. The right most column is the RPM you need to be at or above in order to stay in lift when you upshift to the next higher gear. This is not necessarily the same as the best shift point at all times. You can see that the gear ratios close up in the higher gears.
So in first gear the strongest part of the powerband is not hit until you are a bit over 30 MPH. Cars like the BMW M-Coupe have to shift up to second at the point our cars are just getting to the sweet stuff! An early M coupe hits the meat of it's band by about 12-15 MPH or so. It would be interesting to see how fast the M-coupe can accelerate from say 30-45 MPH compared to our cars! You can be doing 30 MPH by the time you cross an intersection so the M-coupe has an advantage for the first 50-100 feet if both are launched off idle.
We have an 8000 RPM steady state redline. And a momentary redline for about 1.5 seconds at up to 8600 RPMs. I think 8500 is claimed, but it actually seems to be 8600. In the chart below I put in the 8600 RPM column for each gear but it will only hit that for sure in 1-2. I suppose that the higher gears can briefly exceed 8000 but how much depends on how much speed they can gain during that roughly 1.5 second period. Note that our shift lights are coordinated with this transient limit and this can help you out.
In a given gear from low revs, you hit Lift at about 6200 RPMs. Once you are in lift, it will stay on as long as you are over 5800 RPMs. For best acceleration you'd generally want to shift such that when in the next gear you are at or above Lift. There is more to the shift point RPM than that but the step-up in torque during Lift is the main thing to retain.
Here is a chart I made using the data from the Road & Track article in the Articles and Reviews section.
Gear__8000__8600__6200__5800___SHIFT-AT-RPM:LIFT
1____42MPH_45MPH_33MPH_30MPH___8600
2____64_____69____50_____46______8600
3____89_____96____69_____65______7300
4___112____120____87_____81______7400
5___142____153___110____103______6500
6___160____172___124____116_______N/A
Now these numbers are rounded off and so forth but you can see that when upshifting into 4,5 and 6 it is easy to stay at or above 5800 RPMs. For example when shifting from 3 to 4 you need to be at a road speed above 81 MPH, looking at the 5800 RPM column for 4th gear. In 3rd gear that would be when you shift at or above 7300 RPMs, the rightmost column for 3rd gear. The right most column is the RPM you need to be at or above in order to stay in lift when you upshift to the next higher gear. This is not necessarily the same as the best shift point at all times. You can see that the gear ratios close up in the higher gears.
So in first gear the strongest part of the powerband is not hit until you are a bit over 30 MPH. Cars like the BMW M-Coupe have to shift up to second at the point our cars are just getting to the sweet stuff! An early M coupe hits the meat of it's band by about 12-15 MPH or so. It would be interesting to see how fast the M-coupe can accelerate from say 30-45 MPH compared to our cars! You can be doing 30 MPH by the time you cross an intersection so the M-coupe has an advantage for the first 50-100 feet if both are launched off idle.