[RandallNeighbour]

Here's the deal. Your variocam kicks in at 4200 rpm and ideally, you want to keep above this level for maximum performance in a hard acceleration situation.

The HP and torque drop off dramatically after 6200 rpm in my car and it redlines at 6500 rpm, so there's no reason for me to go above the 6000 line as it just puts additional wear and tear on the motor without any additional benefit and risks a computer reaction. (I've no idea what size motor you have so I don't know where the power falls off on your motor, but it will be shown in your manual or other forum members can tell you the specs on your motor size.)

I took my car out Friday morning and headed to the country. I took it up to 6000 rpm in first through fourth a number of times. Blows out all the carbon and the motor actually seems to like it.

Some forum members will tell you going to 6k all the time will prematurely wear out your motor, and while they're right, why did you buy the car?

If you bought it to drive hard and enjoy the way I drive my car, get busy rowing through the gears when you take it out, and shift up at 6k or so and enjoy the glorious intake and exhaust sounds of a flat six.

I gotta say thought that I do not wind it up to 6k on every shift all the time. When I'm driving around town I shift at 3500 to 4000 to save on fuel and not wear out the motor for no good reason. But when I take it out for a drive in the country, the shift points change dramatically.

Hope this helps!

BTW, I'm willing to bet money that 550 special edition was fitted with a tiptronic and he was letting the computer shift for him. It was too smooth and each upshift only brought the rpms down to 6000 on the nose. That's not easy to do with flat out driving with a stick.