The gearbox of a motor vehicle is a sophisticated machine, the component parts of which all work in unison to allow the driver to get the best possible performance from the engine and so make the vehicle he is driving work for him. How you use your gearbox will make a very big difference towards how well or badly you make progress along the road. Change to a high gear too early and the car will judder and struggle to pick up speed. Hold a gear for too long as you climb the rev-scale and you will pass through and beyond the point in the rev-range where maximum power and torque is delivered. This results in the engine thrashing anyway and not actually getting you anywhere very quickly, and cause accelerated wear or even cause things to break.
 Using the ratios sensibly and intelligently can make a big difference in the way a car behaves. The holding of lower gears, for example, is a technique used to enhance the ability of a driver to maintain a high level of control and to facilitate a smooth and flowing drive.
When cars first became available to the masses they were, by today’s standards, quite primitive machines. 4.5 litres in the 1940s only produced a fraction of the horsepower that a 4.5 litre engine produces today. In fact the modern 1.2-litre runabout will probably outrun one of those old big-engined bone shakers, but 4.5 litres was quite modest back in the 1920’s and 30’s.
By the 1950s, the engine size for the family car was more in the realms of 750cc, whereas the 1960s saw more cars with 2-litre engines such as the Triumphs and Rovers (also 3,500), but manufacturers were turning out mainly sub-2 litre units as the main market-feeder vehicles.
As the torque and relative power output was low by the standards of today, manufactures had to balance the engine output with an appropriately gauged range of gears for the engine to cope with the expectation of the customer, expectations that weren’t really very high. As a consequence the gears were fairly low and close in ratio, and as the price of fuel didn’t really matter at about 3 shillings a gallon (3p per litre), the cars could easily pull from about 30mph in top gear (which in those days was 4th gear) and everyone was happy – that is except the owners of the 1500cc Austin Maxi. This was the first British built car to have a 5-speed gearbox, but had insufficient power to sustain the road speed with that gear selected. The 1750cc version faired much better and could keep going in 5th. Incidentally, did you know that the Maxi was the first hatchback?
If we come back to the modern day, the concerns of the car manufacturer, in line with public demand, are somewhat different. For one thing, and because the price of petrol has become the equivalent to that of the same quantity of liquid gold, we all want to get that extra couple of miles out of a gallon of the stuff. Also, because the torque range of engines has become wider and the gearing has become higher, with certain models a higher road-speed may be required before the next highest sequential gear is required.
If you drive a 2003 1.7 Vauxhall Astra Turbo Diesel you will see what we mean. Whilst there is nothing wrong with the Astra, and we certainly do not use this car in our example in a derogatory way, it will be found that it is virtually impossible to drive the car on the flat at 30mph in 4th gear. It doesn’t like it at all. Therefore you are forced to use third as your top ratio at this speed and anyone that does use 4th in this car will almost certainly have to break the speed limit in order to do so comfortably. There are many other makes of car that will behave the same. It is not the fault of the car it is just that we have to adapt ourselves to a different way of driving.
So what is the harm in using third? Where does it say, “Thou shalt always arrive at the highest gear in the gearbox when driving your car down the road?” Gears are there to assist you in getting the best out of a car in terms of performance, to be able to use it effectively as a means of transport. If you tried to ride a bicycle with the idea that you have to reach the highest available gear in the shortest space of time you would soon change your tune, because it is you and not an engine that is having to work harder than is necessary.
 Sticking with the bike thing for a moment, in what mode would you ride so as to expend the least amount of effort and energy but make the best progress? The answer would be to ride with your pedals moving at a moderate speed and with sufficient momentum to sustain the road speed that was comfortable and that absorbed minor changes in gradient without you really noticing. This would be at a speed you could sustain over a prolonged period without having to heave the pedals around or, conversely, have your feet whizzing so fast you couldn’t keep up with yourself.
The same applies to a car engine. That Vauxhall Astra was far more comfortable doing 30mph in third than in fourth, and required less energy to maintain that speed in the third gear. If it was using less energy it was using less fuel, and there was less stress on the machinery to achieve it. Not only that, by use of that third gear, the driver will be able to make the necessary changes in speed to meet the requirements of driving in traffic. By easing or squeezing the accelerator, he or she will often remove the necessity to brake. It will also make it easy to keep the car within 30mph whilst driving moderate up and down gradients in the road. This again would be achieved without the need to make further gear changes or to make applications of the brakes.
If you are not braking you are reducing the amount of wasted energy, and if you are not wasting energy you are saving on fuel, tyre wear, wear on brake components – the list goes on. Not everyone drives Vauxhall Astra's, and each model of car will have its own gearing characteristics. I have driven many different types of modern car and not found any that complains about being driven in 3rd gear at 30mph.
At Ride Drive we often have clients that find it difficult to maintain a speed in their car that is within a low speed limit, especially a 30 mp h speed limit, and as the session progresses we encourage them to get used to the idea of using third gear in that environment. It is such a nice flexible gear, and you can do so much with it.
Driving in town is not the only place where the third gear helps produce a smooth and flowing drive. Imagine you are coming up to the end of a 30mph zone into a National limit area that is on a B-class or C-class road. After a short straight there are two bends separated by a short straight, and then a fairly straight road for about a mile. Holding the car in 3rd you can accelerate smoothly, crisply and comfortably from your restricted speed to an appropriately greater speed. Still holding the gear box in third, on approach to the first bend you can begin to back off the throttle at just the right time so that when you reach that bend the car is travelling at the desired speed at which to negotiate it safely. As you are still in 3rd gear you can now balance the car on the throttle for the duration of the curve and then use that same gear to accelerate off the bend into the short straight. Still holding third you decelerate the car again for the second bend that comes up shortly after the first. Using the same technique you drive around the curve, accelerating again on the far side. Now on the long straight section it becomes more appropriate to use the higher gears as required.
What you will have achieved here is a technique known as acceleration sense. This, in conjunction with the effective use of the gearbox, is used to deliver a brisk but smooth flowing drive that has been achieved with the maximum degree of control and with the least amount of stress being placed upon you or the vehicle. Remember also that changing down a gear is not automatically linked to a reduction in speed. It is often desirable and more effective to select a lower gear, but maintain a constant road speed, to just give that little extra degree of car control when dealing with areas of potential difficulty or danger.
What about automatic gearboxes? There has been no mention of them so far and yet more and more cars these days have them. How do you drive with an automatic box? Has anyone ever taught you what to do with it other then stick it in ‘D’ and press the accelerator?
One example, of which I have personal experience, illustrates how effective the efficient use of an auto-box can be. A Ride Drive customer, whom we served a few years ago, was a chauffeur to the director of a large business conglomerate. He was on a three-day programme and had brought along the company car, a BMW 750L stretched and armoured limousine with automatic transmission. The car was reminiscent of one of the Royal Navy’s finest aircraft carriers, probably weighing in at about the same tonnage and with the same handling characteristics. I was running the job on this particular day, Nick's first practical day on the road. As we left the urban environment from which we started, and headed onto a nice playful B-class road, I said to Nick, “Okay Nick, let’s see a nice progressive drive keeping it all nice and smooth.”
As we went through the de-restriction signs, the auto box kicked down a cog and we accelerated up to 60 before reaching the first of many bends, with many different gradients to come as well. There was much huffing and puffing coming from the drivers side of the car as Nick literally fought with the beast along the road. He was finding it very much like hard work, and after letting him suffer for about 10 minutes, I suggested he might find it easier to manually select third gear, and to remain locked in that gear until the road environment changed, so telling us it was appropriate to do otherwise.
The difference it made was fantastic. Instead of endlessly coasting and running on, then requiring big foot-fulls of brakes, the car now actually decelerated when Nick lifted his right foot. Also, by introducing acceleration sense into the programme, and with it advanced road positioning, he was now able to set the car up for bends and corners often without having to brake at all, and still pushing along quite nicely too. He was no longer fighting with the car. He was making the car work for him, blending with it and becoming more part of the machine.
Another example of effective driving with an auto-box is the overtaking manoeuvre. Many a driver has been heard to complain, or at least comment, that the kick-down with an automatic takes too long to happen and is a nuisance, as often by the time the auto-box has sorted itself out, the moment has gone. You  can actually eliminate kick down all together and get the same response from the car as you would a manual transmission. All you have to do is decide what gear the car will select for a particular situation and road-speed when you ask it to accelerate past the vehicle you are going to overtake, and then pre-empt what it would do automatically by selecting that same gear manually, moving the shift-selector to the required position. Now when you do go for the overtake the car will respond immediately.
Just side-stepping for a moment, it never ceases to amaze me the number of drivers that you see going for an overtake on a two-way road, obviously whilst in fourth or fifth gear. You can spot them a mile away as they are the ones that take about ten days to get past anything and will then get flashed by the oncoming driver who has had to make room for them to get back in. That signals another problem. How many drivers out there were never taught how to overtake?
Going back to HMS Ark Royal for a moment, and again arriving at an urban environment, Nick was encouraged to manually select and hold second gear when in town. Immediately, the lumbering great beast became so completely manageable it was as easy to drive as a car many time smaller.
If you listen to your car when it speaks to you, you will come to know its capabilities and what it requires of you as th edriver. That way you can tune into the car and become part of it. By choosing the right options there is so much less stress involved in the act of driving. Not only that, there is less stress on the vehicle, which means lower running costs, and you remain in control. It can even make driving more fun, too.
Finally, the Department for Transport, through the DSA, has issued a directive that all drivers should be encouraged to reach the highest ratio in the gear box within the shortest amout of distance travelled.
apparently this is all in the interest of cutting exhaust emissions and saving fuel The advice on this here is that if you have any sense at all you will dismiss this ridiculous idea for the worthless rubbish that it is, because what you will be doing if you follow this directive is diminishing the level of control that you will have over your vehicle. After trying the techniques as advocated by these pages, and using those nice flexible working gears that give you such a tight grip on your car, have a go at driving a third gear bend in fifth and feel the difference. Without doubt you will find it feel horrible.
Just remember that the majority of DFT people, especially those who are in positions of influence don’t even have a driving licence! They will also take advice from those who wish to feather their own nests in some way and will make recommendations that are not necessarily within the interest of those who will become affected by the decisions that come from such submissions, as in you the motorist.
Stick to what is good, tried and tested and leave the politics out of driving. This is enough of a Nanny State without us having to be told which gear to use when we drive the car. When you get to know your car properly you will be able to tell when it is happy doing something, and when it is happy, it is running efficiently. Let the vehicle do the talking. |
