When road conditions allow, accelerate to at least 6000rpm, The B series engines fitted to the MX-5 do not make peak power until 6500rpm and continuously short shifting will choke the engine with oil and partially burned deposits. Allowing your engine to clear her throat once in a while will help maintain performance and keep your engine cleaner.
When I was a lot younger and cars were a lot simpler, every now and again it was a good idea to put the car into 2nd gear and drive it up to “valve bounce”, for a few seconds. This would clear out all the muck that had built up in the engine. I used to hate doing this because I always felt that I was only half a second away from a big bang. The result of this thrashing was without doubt a better running car. With modern technology controlling engines and cat’s cleaning the exhaust I am doubtfull if a good thrash would be benificial. But you never know!
Look at the following figs, they are for a standard Mk1 1.6 [most of the others are the same within a few %] and you will see that a change up point of 7250rpm will give figs below the national [UK] speed limit. So no problem doing that on a nice quiet de restricted road. If you have never gone much beyond 5000rpm you will be amazed at how much more there is available above that figure. The engine has a rev limiter, so you can’t actually over rev it. This is a well known method of helping the engine to have a good clear out once in a while, sometimes called an “Italian Tune Up”…give it a go and see what you find [BTW you will never hit max in 5th gear on the flat in an unmodified car]
The engine is designed for these speeds and the red line is there to mark the top end of the designed in rev range. Go beyond this and you’re taking a risk, but up to that point you are within the engines designed-in working range.
Not using all the revs is a waste, not only are you missing out on some power, but you’ve wasted the time of all the engineers at Mazda who worked so hard to make the engine do what it does.
Driving up to the red line with the engine warm does no harm at all.
I’m with the Captain. After my passat and the VW van it is easy to forget the engine we have loves revs and is at it’s best above 4500. If you are rarely going above this then get into the habbit of being one gear lower and keep the engine ‘on song.’
If you change up at 6,500 rpm you will drop to the high 4s and it transforms the car. Max torque is about 5,500, max bhp about 6,500 rpm and this is where my car works best. Short shifting does the engine no good and it sounds great as the revs increase.
I generally agree with Geoffs posts/replies but 140.1 in 5th for a standard Mk1 is more than I was led to believe. I appreciate my import J1 Roadster is limited to 110 mph or at least I think it is for the Japanese market, but I thought they were only good for about 116mph anyway.
The figs are from a table here just click on MX5 speed in gears for an excel spread sheet [not my work, and I can’t remember wher it came from, but the calcs seem to be ok]. The problem with a '5 is that it doesn’t have enough oomph to pull 7500 revs in 5th gear and the aerodynamics are apparently pretty ■■■■ as well. You can de restrict your car by removing a small screw from the back of the instrument panel, but why would you want to.
Geoff’s right - it’s geared for a much higher top speed than it can actually do - fith gear is for economy, not performance,
Because you hit the limiter drifting round Corum corner at Snetterton if you don’t. Can’t think why you’d bother on a road car - your licence has gone by 100mph already.
I believe in fully using the rev range, all my mileage is pleasure stuff these days so I spend a lot of time around the twisty backroads that abound in this part of Queensland.Over the last 2500 ks I have averaged just over 30 mpg, the lowets was a day spent on a dyno, that tankful returned 26mpg.
The tank is 48 ltrs on the 1.8 mk 1, which is about 10.5 gallons in english.
You must be getting about 25 mpg.
I am getting about 320 miles to the tank driving at lower revs which is about 30.5 mpg. So the higher revs are reducing the miles per tank by 70 miles, costing about an extra £10.
I am still going to have a play with driving at higher revs to see the difference in handling.[H]
Having been out in my car this morning in the lovely sunshine, i can confirm that half an hour spent on B roads does reveal the MX5 engine on my car to be a wonderful thing at full tilt[:)]
I was pondering exactly this question this morning when I went out at 6.30 purley for the pleasure of blasting down some very empty B roads in the sunshine [H]. My daily driver encourages changing up - up - up until you are in 5th but still doing only 40 mph! I consciously adopt a more spitited driving style in the 5 and gradually you do realise that the more you rev it the more it wants to give you. I think maybe the time has come to really give it a boot and see just what the little beauty is capabale of!
