6th gear on freeway??

Guys I spoke to some people who drives sticks with 6 speed regarding using their 6th gear on freeway. Some don't use it because of lack of power. I am wondering your thoughts on that??

Why do you need quick power while driving the freeway? If you're regularly at a speed where you downshifting into 5th gear will put you into maximum power rpm on a freeway, you eiither have a drinking problem or are just nuts. Use 6th speed when you just cruising above 50 mph or so and you'll be fine.

How much power do you need for keeping up with the traffic flow? I don't often need to downshift on the freeway, and when I do, I find it's more useful to go straight from 6th to 4th for a great throttle-blip and lots of go!

6th gear is design for Freeway......... if not, when do you ever use the 6th gear?

When you need to go 170? Seriously, when upshifting I go from 4th to 6th on the freeway. 5th gear almost never gets used on my car. You certainly get some fuel economy benefit in 6th.

Yep +1 on the fuel economy benefits with 6th And over 140 mph it does provide some extra gearing to keep th epower down

+1 If you're not using 6th, then you're running your engine harder than you need to for a given speed... who needs fuel economy? 6th still has some bite to it and as others have said, 4th there waiting to pounce.

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-forum/268801-6th-gear.html

I also rarely use 5th - go straight from 4th to 6th.

What lack of power? Maybe if you were trying to cruise on the highway at 30 mph and trying to be in 6th. At anything above 2500 rpms, there is an abundance of torque on tap and the car easily accelerates around those SUVs and Civics. Top gear pickup in these cars is substantually better than top gear pickup in most of the cars on the road. This is a rediculous thread. Contrary to some opinions here, our 6th gear was not designed just for highway running. Fuel thirsty cars like Vipers and Vettes have 6sp transmissions with rediculous tall 6th gears (.50:1) for the sole purpose of improving fuel economy. These top gears are useless for acceleration because they are so overgeared. In fact, those cars top on in 5th gear so they are actually like having a 5 speed in the real world; just with an extra fuel miser only mode. The 6sp in the Carrera is very purposeful in the choice of ratios. The axle ratio is significantly shorter than a Viper and even shorter than those in Vettes. Our 5th gear at 1.02:1 is actually shorter than the 1:1 ratios in the 4th gears used in Vettes and Vipers. Our 6th are fairly tight above that at only .84:1, far shorter than the .71-75 ratios in those other 6 speeds. Why? So every gear is funcitonal to provide the best acceleration. Our 3rd runs out around 100, 4th runs out around 125, 5th runs out around 150 and 6th takes you to top speed around 180. Revs drop off less and keep you higher in the power curve with each gear going higher. You can't drive over 150, unless you use 6th and once you are there is a very functional gear for accelerating further. Do a couple runs from 60 to 160 and you can quickly appreciate how nicely spaced the gears are in these cars. Using 6th in other cars is a joke, not in these cars.

What does it feel like at 160+? (haven't been there...) :-) JB

no need for anything after 3rd on the freeway, otherwise your speeding

Is this a trick question?

+1 once again I rarely ever use 5th - straight from 4 to 6 and down again.

I just hope you're joking

yah sorta, speed limits here are 100 km/h top of 3rd is what, around 140-160 and way over the speed limit 3rd gear @4000 rpm is 100 km/h

For about town driving (sustained speeds), I try to keep my revs around 2500rpm. On the highway, that's sixth gear around 75mph. Good cruising speed. Good mileage.

I use 6th on the freeway. If I remember correctly, 80mph is around 3000rpm in my '00 996. I get around 25.5-26.5 mpg cruising around 80mph on the freeway. I have no problem passing slower cars while staying in 6th unless I get hemmed in behind an abnormally slow car and want to get around them in short order. So why would I cruise in 5th gear and sacrifice my fuel economy? I also use all the gears. I'm probably at 75+ in 4th as I hit the freeway if I was able to charge the onramp. 5th allows me to settle into traffic and figure out what I have around me (and if I need to pass a slower car in the right lane). Then 6th for the cruising. They're there, so I use them.

I also find the 6th gear acceleration to be sluggish for what the car is actually capable of,...of course it can easily pass most cars on sixth with no effort, but it sure doesn't compare to being in fifth or fourth. When the rpm is at 4k and in 4th gear, I find you only have to think and the car is there, in fifth it takes a few seconds, and a bit more for sith, but still enough. When i am just cruising at 70ish I will use 6th, but for spirited driving the RPM has to be at 4k in 4th.

I disagree: 6th gear is designed for the Autobahn and speeds >100mph, not for the Freeway. I think the questions about 6th gear in the US is very good! When I'm on freeways with a 55mph speed limit (trafic flow is then around 70mph), I hardly use 6th gear as I think the RPM are too low. When the speedlimit is above 65mph, so trafic flow 80mph+, then 6th gear starts to make sence. I don't think fuel efficiency is much different if you cruise in 5th gear with 70mph or in 6th gear with this speed, it might even be less efficient to plague the car up a hill on the Freeway in 6th gear with 2.5k RPM. In my opinion, our cars are built to be driven in a certain RPM range for me 3k-7k RPM. If you really want to go below 2.5k RPM and think that's cool, then buy a diesel - they have much more torque at 2.5k RMP than our cars, even with half of the power.