Exactly

i never use 5th

 

when i had my integra LS 5-spd.. when i was in 5th gear curising around 3k rpm i was doin around 70mph... i always felt the need to shift into 6th though.. always wanting that extra gear u know? idk if that made any sense but eh

 

I too have had an integra and a prelude and i TOTALLY know what you mean.
It just feels like the engine is working way to hard to just be just cruising.

6th gear is awsome.

I useto jump 4th to 6th all the time before too, but once I went turbo. every gear counts :D

 

2nd gen toyota MR2. At 45 mph cruising I was in 5th gear doing 2250 rpms. 70 was at about 3600 rpms. When I moved to Raleigh from Chicago there were times when I would cruiise at over 4k rpms at about 85 mph. Sadly I still got over 30 mpg at 4k, where as I am lucky to see 20mpg at 3k in my rx7.


BC

 

you can be like my GF and drive around in 5th gear at 75+ mph until I look over at the tach and ask her WTF she's trying to get even worse mileage. I pick up on the rpm note right away and she's totally oblivious to it. I usually skip 5th in the RX-8 too.

 

I like to think of the RX-8 as having a five-and-a-half speed. What's the difference between 5th and 6th? 400 RPM, if that? There isn't a whole lot of difference between 4th and 5th either.

I wonder what Mazda's reasoning for this is. Maybe it just didn't make a big enough difference in mileage to matter. Or maybe this was the cheapest gearset Aisin offered. Or maybe they didn't want to have the final gear be totally incapable of acceleration, I guess we can't ask people to go down to 5th for passing.

That's what's annoying now. You cruise in 6th, and it would be nice to just throw down to 5th for passing. But there's so little point, and you end up going down to 4th or even 3rd. Give me a taller 6th and a shorter final drive so 5th is more useful. Yeah I may have posted this once or twice before.

 

From a turbo perspective, the top gears are quite useful - its the bottom 2 that become frivolous.
I think the 5 speed from the RX-7 would be a better choice in general.

 

for any kind of acceleration at highway speeds 6th gear pretty much sucks for an NA RX-8, 4th or even 3rd is obviously better, but 5th is a good compromise between accelerating and economy

ps: that 3-way avie beats the bubba-flubba girls any day

 

at one time, i quit using 6 gear for a few tanks too. it was until that my low fuel light came on that i finally switched into 6th....

 

On one occasion on the public highway I hit 242kph (about 150 mph) in 5th gear. When I went to change to 6th gear I instantly lost about 5mph. The car would not accelerate any more in 6th. This car is not as streamlined as you might have thought. The wind resistance at that speed is unbelievable. In my opinion 6th gear and a NA RX8 is only for highway cruising.

 

yes i did ...well i dont exactly know how many rpms i was at by the time i hit 6th but the car wouldnt go no more...see happy?..........geez

 

At 110 mph, you are not sitting at 7000 to 8000 rpm. More like 5500. Is that really a problem for you, or do spend an inordinate amount of time driving around at 110 mph? At 70 mph, it is a reasonable 3500 rpm. One could argue for a slightly taller sixth gear, but the issue is ability to accelerate, which is already fairly pathetic at NORMAL highway speeds in sixth gear. Just too far down the power curve.

 

ROFL, right after driving on highway.