[ChrisD]

Originally Posted by jvincent

Not wanting to be a backseat driver, but he spent way too much time in 5th gear on the R8 and he was in fifth before he wrecked the twin. But he was only doing 90MPH.

If you've tracked a twin you'll know that you shouldn't be anywhere near 5th gear at that speed. You've still got plenty of room in 4th. I wouldn't even think of going to fifth until at least 100MPH and only then if there were a lot of straight away left.

So in summary, his gear management sucks.

I know I said I wasn't going to reply to individual "expert" opinions... but this one annoyed me because you're assuming so much.

The R8 is supercharged, it makes peak power before the red line and starts dropping off towards the top end. Its better to shift earlier than rinse it out until the red line. Plus, with it having over 700 bhp it is easier to manage wheel spin in higher gears so that's another reason I sometimes shift a bit earlier than you might expect.

The GT86 has a stage 3 AVO turbo, and whilst I haven't had it on a dyno, again it feels like you're getting back into the meat of the power by shifting slightly early. Plus on a track day I did a while ago we had an issue with it hitting the overboost cut out when you got it to real high RPMs, and that has not been completely sorted out yet, so that's probably the main reason I shift into a higher gear a little earlier than might be necessary in a stock GT86.

So yeah, stop judging people's driving and saying that they suck just from seeing one short video where you know nothing about them or their cars. Oh and if you are going to pick faults with someone's driving, find something more substantial than "he shifts up a bit too early". Jesus christ...