Paddle shifters, etc

[Alan]

Do any of you use the paddle shifters regularly? Under what circumstances do you find them useful? Do you use the paddle shifters to "engine brake" the car while setting up for a turn? Is there any disadvantage to driving in "S" mode all the time (excluding fuel mileage)? If you want to have a little fun (for example, with a BMW), would you just put it in S and let the electronics handle the transmission, or would you manually control the shifts?

[jconley]

I use the shifter paddles for two things:

1. Downshifting to pass on the highway.

2. When dealing with serious twisty roads, i push it over to fully manual mode and use only the paddles- I would rather the transmission not decide when to shift for me.



Enjoy!
J

[TheBrit]

Normally I'll stick to D only in town, then drop straight into Tip mode and use the paddles, although I will stick in D if I'm just tootling along slowly (slowly for an RS 6 anyway!). I rarely use S, although it is quite impressive on a road where you have such tight turns that you just wouldn't get your hands on the paddles in time.

I regularly use engine braking for slowing down or stopping at corners and junctions.

[andyp]

Same as per Jordan with the addition of:

1. To correct the transmission's tendency to change up sometimes when you'd rather it didn't, e.g. when you ease up on the throttle approaching a corner. If you take your foot right off the throttle it usually knows to stay in gear to assist with engine braking but it doesn't know that if you still use some throttle.

2. When you are bored with driving an automatic and want to take the helm.


Sport mode works really well on the track but I don't use it a lot on the road. Yes, I would use it if I were "playing" with that ficticous BMW ... On the road there are situations where sport mode would just have you using more revs than you need, as when other traffic gets in the way ... this is an ideal time to use the paddle to change up and scrub off some revs that you can't use anyway, but still stay in sport for the next opportunity.

Andy