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No, you want the revs as low as possible at all times. Sport will make the automatic MORE prone to downshifting, which is what you do NOT want to have happen. It is more efficient to accelerate at a large throttle openning than a small one.
The old "accelerate like there is an egg on the pedal" wisdom is just not true with small (especially turbocharged) engines. You want to accelerate with as large a throttle openning as possible in as tall a gear as possible without getting into any full-throttle enrichment regimes of the engine management. The idea is to minimize the time spent accelerating, so that you can maximize the time spent at an economical cruise mode. So for my 2.0T with 6spd manual, if I am not in a hurry I can use 3/4 throttle, change up at 2500 rpm and make brisk, efficient progress up to highway speed. An automatic hampers this - to keep it to 2500 rpm you can't use nearly as much throttle, so you either take a long time getting up to speed (which is inefficient) or use too many rpms and waste fuel that way. Similarly, an automatic will change down on a hill, which is inefficient, while with a manual you can leave it in a high gear and let all that lovely turbo torque pull you up the hill.
For a real-world exampe of the difference gearing makes on the highway, early 2.3T 9000s are pretty much identical engine-wise to later 2.3T 9000s, other than they are about 10% shorter geared on the highway (they turn more rpms at highway speed). They get ~10% worse fuel economy than the later cars with the taller gearing.
Kevin Rhodes
Westbrook, ME
'08 9-3 Sport Combi 2.0T
posted by 72.224.21...
, Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:37:50
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