akirk wrote:interesting Garrison - I had heard that about the Porsches - a good reason to take care of them... the intriguing question for me though is if a car has a rev-limiter (i.e. it stops you going above a certain number of revs) how can it possibly be over-revved? If pushing into the top part of the revs is likely to damage the car, then I would consider that a manufacturing issue, the rev limiter should be lower... it begins to sound as though Porsche have engines which are vulnerable at high revs and they don't limit them lower as to do so would be to contradict their sports car image... something wrong there...
I appreciate you wouldn't wish to drive a car continually at the top end of the rev range - but to feel you can't go there or somehow you will damage it suggests that it is not built very well!
I would always respect an owner's wishes if driving someone else's car - that is simple polite courtesy... but for personal ownership would not wish to own a car where I couldn't use the full rev range - I keep the revs down unti lthe temperature is up / and a bit of time for oil - after that anyone driving the z3 is welcome to use the full rev range (having said that the auto box will change up if you accelerate at the top end of the range
nothing like the nanny state keeping control!
Alasdair
The red-line is set at 6,600 rpm and limiter at 6,800 rpm.
There is nothing actually wrong with the limiter and I certainly all the revs to the red-line in the higher gears. It is just that with twin turbo and in the 1st and 2nd gears, revs will flare pass the limiter with the twin turbo and momentum because the revs rises so quickly on full boost, unless you start to back off the throttle as you approach the red-line. Bear in mind that the car would not stop boosting instantaneously the millisecond the limiter cuts in.
The car will revs from idle to the limiter in just over a second in 1st gear, covering 5 mph to 35 mph, and 40-60 mph in 2nd will be again covered in just over a second. I would not be surprise if the revs over-shoots the limiter. Situation is worse on track when you spin off from a high-grip tarmac onto wet grass with the throttle wide open in lower gears. Again, the revs will flare.
In 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th gear, the revs will not be rising fast enough and the limiter will catch the revs in time.
My practice is to start changing up around 5,500-6,000rpm in 1st and 2nd so I would not slam into the limiter and trigger a data-log for over-revs.
I guess a work around is for the drive-by-wire throttle to start tapering the revs at it approaches the limiter, depending on how much throttle is applied at the pedal. Alternatively, they can set different rev limiter for each gear, lower limiter for lower gears. Neither of which I like as I prefer to control the throttle as manually as possible.