For the racers out there auto trans, do you shift yourself or do you put it in drive and let the computer shift?

 

My car is stock/stock. I always been told to put it in D and go.

I've tried to manual shift before and the thing just seems to shift on it's own anyhow. Like I hit it up a gear and it just revs for 3 more seconds and then shifts.

 

Unless you convert to manual shift, just select "Drive", not over - drive.....

 

I've tried it both ways, and like previous said it shifts when it wants...plus shifting with an auto makes it VERY easy to go from first to third...It's better to just put her in D and go

 

Whats the difference between putting it in D or OD

 

The only way you can up shift a stock auto manually would be to use a programmer, and program it to shift pretty early. That way, when you hold it in the lower gear, and then go to the next higher gear up, the tranny will already have wanted to shift, so it will do it then. However, if you're going to do programming anyway, might as well program it to the shift points you want to use.

 

I use D because I just figure I want all the RPM's I can get. I never tried racing in OD, but I know from driving on the street the car is stronger and pulls better in D. Maybe I'm wrong and its just a SOTP thing.

 

If your at WOT, your car isn't going to make it into OD until your above probably 120 MPH anyway, so putting it in D, or OD doesn't really matter. It can make a difference driving around town becuase when the torque converter locks up, and you go into OD, your're below a 1:1 ratio. Applying enough throttle puts it back into D automatically.

 

There is a difference in D and OD when shifting and in torque converter behavior. I learned this while programming for an autocross. Not to mention with me anyway, I can feel the car not locking up as soon under lighter throttle. Heavy throttle... ?????

 

Thanks guys. I guess I'll be leaving it in drive and do some programming because it's bouncing off the rev limiter in drive for a couple seconds before it shifts.

 

that would be because your tranny is slipping, unless someone programmed the shift point to be too late

 

Wow. There's a lot of slipping trannies out there... It's a regular topic on the LT1 Edit list with guys that have several thousand in their trannies. Even my car needs the shift points lowered for wot.