Torque Dip: Why all the fuss?

[chas3wba0]

I DD this car and the only time I notice the torque dip is coming out of corners or trying to pass/merge aggressively. The way around it is to downshift, which is not so much a problem as it is a characteristic: this car was designed to make you work for the performance... you can't simply mash on the pedal when you want to speed up like you can in an idiot-proof, 300+hp V6

[Trettiosjuan]

Originally Posted by Monogram

This is why the car has a clutch. I have yet to find any corner where I am looking for a gear that doesn't exist. I've found some tight 15mph corners, and no issues.

Maybe some are having issues with entry speed?

Hey, back off, that is my experience for my driving. What is it with this forum??

Anyhow, slipping the clutch may work around town, but in committed driving on tight narrow roads of a kind that you probably haven't ever driven in your life, you'll fry you clutch in no time.

[Churnobyl]

Originally Posted by Monogram

I've logged 3,500 miles on my 2014 FR-S, and I am at a complete loss as to why there are so many threads about the "dreaded torque dip."

Yes I understand what it is, where it resides, and what the dyno charts show.

I cannot for the life of me figure out what real-world issue is caused by the torque dip. The car drives great under the torque dip and into the torque dip during regular commuting, and when I take the great backroads around southwest Washington and want to spin it up, I run it in the 4,500 - 7,500 rpm range with no issues. The manual gearbox in my car always has the right gear for any speed.

Does anyone else NOT have any issues with the torque dip?

Merging into traffic.
Passing in traffic.
Passing in any gear higher than 4th if its level or 3rd if its up a hill.
Driving with a passenger.
Driving with traction on.
If you even remotely want to drive this car for fuel economy.* (Arbitrarily identified as 4k rpms or lower) You never get out of the dip.

I love my BRZ. But that dip is going away. As fast as I can allocate money to its elimination.

As far as "its got 6 gears for a reason" I'd argue that bone stock, the dip eliminates 6th as an option unless you are the only car on the road. Otherwise its 3rd/4th/some 5th all day.

*Qualifier, I'm not driving for economy, but many owners do.

[Fortis]

I can't speak for the MT but if you throw the Auto tranny in Sport Mode, the dip is virtually nonexistent.

[tahdizzle]

From my experience, downshifting into 1st at 20 mph in the BRZ makes baby jeebus cry.

[CatDaddysBBQ]

Its not really a problem, it's just annoying. Lots of us came from torquier cars, so the lower twist is enough of a thing to get used to, let alone the little dip that just seems like it could've been tuned out at the factory.

[ProjectGT86]

Originally Posted by Fortis

I can't speak for the MT but if you throw the Auto tranny in Sport Mode, the dip is virtually nonexistent.

thats because if you have the automatic in auto mode with sport on the ECU downshifts for you when you floor the pedal but if you drive the auto in manual mode anything after 4th it takes forever to get any power

[Fortis]

Originally Posted by ProjectGT86

thats because if you have the automatic in auto mode with sport on the ECU downshifts for you when you floor the pedal but if you drive the auto in manual mode anything after 4th it takes forever to get any power

Sport Mode is designed to keep you in the power band. You don't necessarily have to be in WOT. I've done a few runs through the twisties the last couple months and have never really felt a flat spot in the powerband while in sport mode. I really only had to floor it on the strait-ways. Thus, no dip.

As far as not having any power in manual mode after 4th gear, that's not the torque dip. Unless your at high speeds, your car isn't going to pull much in 5th gear.

[Bristecom]

I think the reason it is so noticeable to me is because I come from cars with plenty of mid-range torque and this car is the opposite. It has good low end torque and decent high end torque but the mid-range feels almost non-existent which is boring and annoying because sometimes you aren't even sure if you're still accelerating or not with the pedal to the floor. It kind of feels like turbo lag without a turbo. And like CatDaddy'sBBQ said, it is particularly disappointing because this seems like something they should have tuned out from the start. Or maybe they should have just used a 2.5L from the start...

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Bristecom

I think the reason it is so noticeable to me is because I come from cars with plenty of mid-range torque and this car is the opposite.

Out of curiosity how much seat time have you had?

[humfrz]

Well, I didn't realize my FR-S had a "torque dip" ...... till I read all about it on this forum .... and kept being exposed to the dyno charts .....


humfrz

[sprintertrueno86]

[ProjectGT86]

Originally Posted by Fortis

Sport Mode is designed to keep you in the power band. You don't necessarily have to be in WOT. I've done a few runs through the twisties the last couple months and have never really felt a flat spot in the powerband while in sport mode. I really only had to floor it on the strait-ways. Thus, no dip.

As far as not having any power in manual mode after 4th gear, that's not the torque dip. Unless your at high speeds, your car isn't going to pull much in 5th gear.

that "always keeping you in the power band" is the ECU downshifting for you, if you notice the .5 second delay when hitting the pedal through the turns that the ECU saying oh okay you want more power let me see which gear will land you at 4500 rpms, as an ECU and power train tuner I can tell you that the sport mode is nothing but a setting that keeps you in a lower gear, even at high speeds on manual mode you wont have any power between 3300 and 4500 rpms its got no umf there

[Nevermore]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Well, I didn't realize my FR-S had a "torque dip" ...... till I read all about it on this forum .... and kept being exposed to the dyno charts .....


humfrz

Same here. I still can't quite figure it out. Maybe it's because I drive an auto and this car is still more powerful at any rpm/speed than any other car I've driven. I will say when driving it in manual mode the rpm's seem to climb slow in 2nd. If that's the torque dip, then I get it. If that's normal then I still don't know what the dip is.