6th Gear

[nobba]

Been thinking for a bit now whats the point of using 6th gear on my FR? I have tried comparing the mpg with 6th and 5th gear and 5th seems to be a couple of mpg better. Today as usual I drove my weekly commute from Barnsley to the East coast for work. I got approximately 85 miles and averaged 47 with 5th gear driving all the way. With 6th I tend to get 43 max. Does anyone else get similar figures? Therefore if this is the case you might as well use it all the time, cause at motorway driving like I do for the majority of my mileage it keeps the revs at around 2.5k an thus gets hot enough to keep the DPF cleaning the fumes. Also its more responsive for any overtaking etc

 

[DanGB]

Ineresting, im sure it makes more of a difference on petrol, as the rev difference would be greater.

 

[JonoUK]

Peak Torque?

 

[SpursMadDave]

Peak Torque?

Wasn't he the one from the Monkees with the funny hat?

 

[Michael B]

Depends what speed you are doing, but often 6th gear and not much revs = engine having to labour..

 

[RCS2K4]

Ineresting, im sure it makes more of a difference on petrol, as the rev difference would be greater.

I try to use 6th where I can. Adds about 3/5 MPG over a journey if you can stay in gear.

It places the revs pretty low tho, so you can only really use it in the Cupra if your doing 65+. If your doing 70 in 6th, and need to "floor it" as it were, then you'll have to change down I guess you gould get away with a 6th gear pull away from 70 in the Diesel FR?

 

[D3DNA]

I've found that most cars have a sweet spot in the rev's to be able to clock up good MPG whilst in the highest gear. In my experience with a petrol LCR its usually a case of when the turbo is on spooling or on boost. Typically a turbo car on high spool should shove enough air into the mix so the car isn't relying on its compression alone, where the car chugs and hence dumping in fuel to compensate.
For me driving while in 6th whilst doing less than 30mph tends to use more fuel that doing so in 5th. I reckon this is due to higher taxing/labouring of the engine; having to rely on BHP and torque to tick the engine over, hence using more fuel.

 

[nobba]

My experience is on motorway driving so were talking 70+. I never use 6th unless im on there or dual carriageways.
RCS2K4 - you can pull away in 6th pretty decently but it obviously does not pull like in 5th and the consumption soon drops below 30mpg on the quick burst whilst the equivalent in 5th is over 30mpg.

It might be that 6th gets better the quicker you go