Automatics, how do you pull away quickly?

[JamesV70R]

1) Plant right food while in Drive.
2) Get pushed back in seat.
3) Look at speedo to see the needle flying clockwise.
4) ????
5) Profit!

The other option is to hold your left foot on the brakes, bring the RPM up by a few hundred - 1600or so, until its "straining at the leashe" and then come off the brakes and to full throttle at the same time. By that point the torque converter will be working and moving fluid, so theres a bit less delay.

James

[capt jack]

It's funny, but I reckon it's easier to pull away quickly in a modern auto than in any manual car.

Modern autoboxes are designed to be left in D all the time, even when standing at lights or a junction.

Keep your foot on the footbrake whilst stopped, or engage the handbrake and leave the selector in D. To move off simply take your right foot off the brake, or release the hand brake, and the drive will start to take up at once. By the time you've moved your right foot to the gas pedal the car will already be moving forward and so pushing down the gas pedal will make the car move more quickly.

You can set the gearbox to S mode if it has one, but frankly that just wastes fuel.

Cheers

Jack

[mikealder]

A word of warning if your car has the 5 speed auto box which also has the stop neutral feature still active, with this combination when stationary with the footbrake applied the box switches to neutral, when you lift off the foot brake the car engages drive. Trying to hold one of these on the footbrake whilst raising the engine RPM will damage the box when you release the brake pedal.
About the only way to do this is to apply the handbrake as this puts the car back in to drive, raise the RPM then release the handbrake - Mike

[Darth Vol]

Place it into "Sports" mode and away you go.

[Andy Northface]

I leave mine in drive all the time and if I want to make a quick getaway..I just floor it! Some people reckon the S80 is a bit sluggish away from the lights,I dunno....mine ain't might be against a T-5 or something...I do agree with a slight rolling start however,you do get more poke.

[rippedoffagain]

Originally Posted by Darth Vol

Place it into "Sports" mode and away you go.

No sports mode on mine. Its a 940, so possibly too old for sports mode?

Its got a caravan pulling mode where if you activate it, it will never go into top gear, but I think that's not the same thing.

I probably should have said she's not exactly slow at pulling away. From a standing start she could do ok, and from a slight rolling start she'll do better than many cars. I guess I was comparing her against my old manual 940 which although less powerful in the mid revs (being non-turbo), she could get away from a stand-still a bit quicker because I had a clutch

That said, maybe its best that I don't have a clutch now. I accidentally did a 180 in my last 940 trying to pull out of a junction quickly.

[barkster1971]

Put a 19T turbo on it and boost to 20 psi

[rippedoffagain]

Originally Posted by barkster1971

Put a 19T turbo on it and boost to 20 psi

Doesn't matter what turbo you put on. A turbo doesn't do much at all while the revs are low, such as pulling away from a standing start. Once the revs get up to the kind of place where the turbo might start thinking about maybe waking up, there's already enough power being laid down for my liking anyway.

[Palmer]

I brake boost mine. Takes off quite nicely as the turbo is already spooled before your moving. Probably not good on a fancy modern auto though.

[barkster1971]

You could always install launch control like mine has!