Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
Just go fast enough to pull top gear. Done.
Engines having broad flat torque curves thus having a larger useful rpm range + vast multitudes of ratios is missing the point? 
Efficiency band while accelerating? And accelerating lasts how long- a few seconds. Cruising along lasts how long- exponentially longer- could be hours. Put that thing in the efficiency zone when at cruise speed. |
Well, reading more responses to this thread, I think I know where the differing viewpoints are coming from.
I live in the SF Bay Area, where traffic moves slowly, and we have lots of lower speed limit roads that are similarly clogged. Having more gears is extremely useful for not getting stuck at a relatively high rpm at a crawl because the next gear is too tall. I've only been in cars with 7 speed automatics so far, but even with 7 gears some of the gaps between the gears feel too big (although usually that is because 2-3-4 are closely spaced for track performance or something...).
On the other hand if you live in the middle of the country where the roads are open and you use the top gear more than you use 1st gear, then I can see why you would find all those gears to be useless.