F sport+flap gear change mode

[Charlesh]

I am new to this forum and my 2015 300h f-sport.

I wondering what people's opinions are around the flap paddle use. Worth it?

[NemesisUK]

The phrase "why buy a dog and bark yourself" come to mind.

That said I found it fun to use the paddles when in Sport mode and the transmission in S mode very PlayStation like shifts (remembering there are no gears in the eCVT transmission, it's all just simulation). 

If you use the paddles without switching the transmission to S mode all you are doing is changing the level of engine braking

Play with them and form your own judgement.

TBH I found the car was best left to itself, in automatic, just enjoy the smoothness and near silent travel...

[Linas.P]

It being CVT gearbox the "manual" mode is pretty pointless. However, as Peter said in certain circumstances they are quite enjoyable to use just because of instant response. I have used them on fast A-road and you can "brake" into the corner and change the gear down and then accelerate out of it. I really doubt it makes car any faster, but it feels like you are more in control.

Apart of using it on twisty A-Roads at speeds ~40-60MPH they are pointless, I can't see any reason to use them in any other circumstances. 

[ColinBarber]

6 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

I can't see any reason to use them in any other circumstances. 

getting ready to overtake someone is the only reason I've used it in the past, so the engine is already revving higher as the road clears and you start the overtake.

[NemesisUK]

4 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

getting ready to overtake someone is the only reason I've used it in the past, so the engine is already revving higher as the road clears and you start the overtake.

But only if one has selected S with the floor shifter first, otherwise depressing the accelerator for more than a couple of seconds deactivates the function, at least in the RC and RX.

 

[ColinBarber]

8 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

But only if one has selected S with the floor shifter first, otherwise depressing the accelerator for more than a couple of seconds deactivates the function, at least in the RC and RX.

 

Yes, it is only activated for a short time if you aren't in S and press the accelerator. When you aren't in S mode, the paddles are really only there to provide engine braking to assist with slowing down, not accelerating faster.

[Linas.P]

17 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

getting ready to overtake someone is the only reason I've used it in the past, so the engine is already revving higher as the road clears and you start the overtake.

Maybe you are talking about automatic box? On CVT it actually doesn't make the car any faster - CTV can change ratio almost instantly anyway and when your "downshift" on paddle actual engine RPM likely doesn't even change, maybe in cases like Peter mentioned where you have car in S and in F-Sport+. Otherwise what happens in my experience say coming into corner you downshift for "engine breaking", what is breaking is not actually engine but EM1 is doing regen, so it feels like car is slowing down, but not because of IC engine RPM. Then when you come out of corner it feels like it pulls harder, but in reality it is only accelerator pedal which is more sensitive because gearbox is set to different virtual ratio and EM1 gives all beans right away. Yet exactly the same acceleration can be achieved by simply flooring the accelerator.

So going back to overtaking example on CVT, it actually would not make your overtake faster, however it feel like it because by "downshifting" you will do same overtaking by depressing half of the pedal instead of depressing it all the way. Yet if you would depress it all the way, the car will respond exactly the same in both cases. It is basically equivalent of PWR button on auto boxes. 

That said it would be 100% true for Auto box, come behind the car, put it into S, maybe drop one more gear with paddle and you are in 3rd, so when it comes to overtaking you just remove the time it would have taken for the box to change form 6th to 3rd and it makes overtaking faster.

 

[NemesisUK]

In my experience it is faster to 'down-shift' the eCVT transmission prior to overtaking. The engine revs are already higher, the system will raise them to give the greatest acceleration force, just like any other transmission.

If one simply floors the accelerator in D the system will build revs quite quickly but not as fast as using the S mode paddle shift, as the revs are already raised as one has shifted in preparation of the manoeuvre (the car in full auto mode can't predict what you are planning!)

It is fun to use and as I said previously the 'changes' are really instantaneous, much faster than any other auto I've used in manual mode. PlayStation for the open road 😎

[ColinBarber]

19 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Maybe you are talking about automatic box? On CVT it actually doesn't make the car any faster

I'm taking about a CVT. If the engine is running at a higher rpm then it is able to deliver power more quickly than waiting for the engine to spool up. The time it takes with the CVT is less than an auto, but there is still a lag.

[Linas.P]

Perhaps I have not tried to "downshift" low enough, because in my experience engine RPM doesn't even change if you press it once. In either case we splitting hairs here the difference between downshifting and not downshifting is mainly the sensitivity of accelerator, smashing it all the way with or without downshift maybe make a difference of 0.1s for overall overtaking.