CVT gearbox...is there a 'knack' to driving one?

[Sloth]

Not long now, the Toledo is somewhere off the coast of northern Spain on route to Bristol.

It went dark again around 8 hours ago but will hopefully come back into AIS range soon.

It's scheduled to arrive at Bristol docks tomorrow around 10:00 (not sure if the time on vessel finder is + or - 1 hour?)

 

Does anyone know how long it takes once the ship docks to get processed and delivered to a dealership? This must be a regular thing so they must have a general timescale give or take that these things take?

I'm trying to manage may expectations for getting my car in time for my holiday on the 27th of this month?

[NemesisUK]

Took approx 2 weeks last time and this time I have a provisional collection date of 3rd July.

[Reuben]

I have just recently gotten a 2014 rx450h f sport and I’ve been wondering about the best way to accelerate from the traffic lights and then also the best way to accelerate at normal speeds for overtaking? 

Mashing the throttle gives excessive engine noise and gently progressively squeezing the throttle seems to build speed faster from a stop?

I’ve tried using the manual sports gearbox tiptronic method but there’s no noticeable difference in acceleration?

is there a way to map or chip this engine or also map the gearbox for better performance?

Thanks,

Reuben

[ColinBarber]

9 hours ago, Reuben said:

Mashing the throttle gives excessive engine noise and gently progressively squeezing the throttle seems to build speed faster from a stop?

Mashing the throttle puts the engine into its peak power band almost instantly and keeps it there. It is the most efficient way to achieve maximum performance and similar to the way a jet engine or speedboat works where the engine speed/power is decoupled from the vehicle's speed.

Any other method (progressively squeezing the throttle, using 'manual' gears) will result in slower performance. There is no debate here, just physics.

 

9 hours ago, Reuben said:

the best way to accelerate at normal speeds for overtaking? 

Normally you putting you foot down is enough. You can use the manual gears (there are no gears, it is just simulated), so the engine is revving higher before you want to accelerate which will mean the engine reaches peak rpm a fraction of a second quicker but there wouldn't be much gain in reality. Sport mode will give a quicker throttle response and greater electrically assistance with partial throttle, but at wide open throttle the vehicle gives maximum power in all modes.

[Spock66]

Personally I find the eCVT behaves in a very similar way to a conventional torque convertor automatic.

Hard acceleration from rest it will hold a low gear ratio at high revs, back off the throttle and revs drop with a higher gear ratio.

Accelerating whilst in motion again revs increase whilst a lower gear ratio is selected.

In all automatics I do find you rarely use full throttle, in a manual for example you may use full throttle and then change up around at around 3-4000, an automatic at full throttle will approach red line before changing up unless you back off the throttle first.