Maybe this is obvious, but it wasn't to me. (Of course, so many things aren't!)
You can, of course, use overdrive in any gear that's enabled. If you mount the
overdrive lever where you can reach it without taking your left hand from the
steering wheel, you can make gear changes with the right hand and go in or out
of overdrive at the same time. If you have O/D for 2nd, 3rd and 4th, you can
accelerate through all 7 gears; for example hitting the switch to go out of 2nd
O/D at the same time you use the shifter and clutch to go into 3rd and so on.
So, don't think of it as just a 5th gear at the top end. You'll love it!
Pat Fischer
Philip Haldeman wrote:
> The TR6 owner's manual is no help, I see. If you've never driven an
> overdrive car, it can be a little confusing (I learned on my old 1950
> Studebaker). Anyway, you don't use the clutch. That's never necessary.
> I've noticed that maintaining a relatively steady speed with the gas pedal
> is smoothest. Coming *out* of overdrive can be stressful on the mechanical
> components if you are decelerating from highway speed (anything above 45,
> let's say) with your foot completely off the gas, and then you switch out of
> overdrive (i.e.downshift) into normal 4th gear. My car gave a fairly
> distinct lurch when I did this once, and I never did it again. I always try
> to keep a relatively steady speed on the pedal when taking the car *out* of
> overdrive while coming down from highway speeds. That's the only thing
> I've had to get used to with the TR6.
>
> Phil Haldeman
|