Opinions on RPM's

[Brucelee]

A point of clarification on my posts. In the past, we have had folks state that driving your Porsche up near the red line was "good for the car."

I have stated that while it may be good for you, for your soul, so to speak, it was not a formula for longevity. Simple physics, as the small posts that I made indicate.

That in no way suggests that you should not drive your car safely at whatever RPM you want. You can ride around all day at 5000 RPM or more and that is perfectly fine with me (maybe not with your local PD).

The point was that as any engineer will tell you, on balance, slow moving engines last longer than high RPM motors. That is one of the reasons why diesels run for so many miles.


Now, to be fair, it is NOT good for your engine to be "lugged" either, so there is usually a happy medium. I have found that for normal street driving, 2000- to 4000 is a nice range for good gas mileage and being easy on a Box. Larer engines can normally be driven at lower RPM than smaller. Another reasons why large V8s can be run for so many miles.

That is not to say I don't go higher, just not all the time.

Hope that helps.