[Braxus]

Something I've been wondering a while is which tranny will allow the Insight to get to 60 faster. From what I understand, people have been saying 5spd is rated for around 11 sec and the CVT around 14 sec? Has anyone really tested this?

Reason I'm asking is cause from what I've seen on 5spd Insights, if you floor it, the tach stays at around 2.5K w/full ASST on the first two shifts. The CVT Insight on the other hand, allows full assist and isn't limited to the 2.5K tach limit.

Now, I'm no car expert, but shouldn't the CVT pull ahead of the 5spd Insight here?

 

[Guest]

speed

i don't have enough miles on mine to push it. Ive been trying to go slow. I used to drive a 52 HP VW diesel rabbit. one favorite hill climb was to leave the Golden Gate Bridge northbound at 45mph and floor the accelerator in third gear, reaching maybe 65mph at the tunnel, and floored until the the downhill, following the guardrail in the left lane...nothing like a diesel at max rpm....we'll have to meet and drag
rodney
'03 silver MT no A/C

 

[dazey]

When I floor my 5 speed in 1st or 2nd the tack will go up to 4k+ easy. I try not to do this too often, but my driveway opens to an almost blind corner with large trucks doing 55MPH. That and when I have to show that tailgating SUV that Insights aren't little toy cars. 8)

 

[Billy]

Re: 0-60 acceleration

The 5-speed will out-accelerate the CVT. This is due to 3 primary reasons: 1) the 5-spd is 110 lighter without A/C and 88 pounds lighter with A/C. 2) the 5-spd puts out 2 more horsepower, due to it's compression ratio of 10.8 to 1 (the CVT has 10.3 to 1) 3) The manual transmission is slightly more efficient in terms of power directly to the wheels vs slippage. Billy......

 

[Ecfool]

He he he he he when I get the wife's 2001 CVT out of body shop I will time both it and MIZR (2000 5 spd) and see which faster. I know MIZR is quick he seems to have a slight problem of wanting to bump the engine "governor" frequently, funny Honda won't let you over rev a Insight past that funny red line on tach. Which i am not sure if its my imagination but if you do over rev it seems that it shifts to neutral and engine goes to fuel cutoff. And yes I am a old hotrodder who stil likes to go fast!! Which FYI top speed on Insight seems to be 113mph with full charge, flat highway and no CHP's.

 

[Resist]

Manual transmissions are always faster than automatics. Unless the driver misses a shift in the manual.

 

[Aaron Cake]

Manual transmissions are always faster than automatics. Unless the driver misses a shift in the manual.

That is not necessarily true, especially in drag racing. There are several cars in which using a properly built automatic will turn better times then the manual transmission.

But as a general statement, it is mostly correct.

 

[mrench01]

The difference in RPM between the 5spd and the CVT during a 0-60 dash is in the final drive ratio. I have also noticed that the CVT shows slightly less distance traveled on the odometer (about a tenth of a mile) over a 12 mile course. This is also probably due to the difference in the final drive ratio. Now, before I get a huge number of replies telling me that the CVT has no gears and therefore can't have a final drive ratio, I am referring to the size and ratio of the ring-and-pinion gear on the differential. I am not talking about the internal transmission gearing. If you look at the specs for the Insight on this website you will see that there is a different final drive ratio. I think that is the reason for the big difference in the 0-60 times. :idea:

 

[glitch]

From what I've gathered

From what I've read:

5 speed 0-60 is 10.8 seconds (You can basically say 11 seconds)
CVT Auto in Drive (D) mode 0-60: 14 seconds
CVT Auto in Sport (S) mode: 12 seconds

This I've gathered from other posts. I know the 10.8/11 second mark everybody is talking about was done in the 5 speed. I then saw another post where somebody posted the CVT 0-60 speeds, the Sport mode makes a difference.

Stick shifts are just more efficient in general in accelerating. That's why most high end sports cars are stick. My Mazda MX6 whic had a V6 and Stick shift easily out-ran my friends MX6 because he was automatic.

Now something I've heard you can do to normal automatic transmissions is add a shift kit, in which there's no loss of power in between shifts, it makes an Automatic very comparable to Stick shift, some say equal if not better. However since the CVT doesn't have gears, I'm sure you can't get a shift kit for it. 0-60 in 12 is ok for me. I wish I had the stick model but my fiancee likes to borrow my ride every now and then and my mom may sometimes borrow it if I borrowed her Mitsubishi Eclipse whenever I need the back seat to carry more people. Funny thing is my mom and fiancee can both drive stick, they just both hate it for some reason.

 

[Resist]

Manual transmissions are always faster than automatics. Unless the driver misses a shift in the manual.

That is not necessarily true, especially in drag racing. There are several cars in which using a properly built automatic will turn better times then the manual transmission.

But as a general statement, it is mostly correct.

That is because you are talking about modded race cars, not stock factory cars. That is what I was talking about.

 

[Rick]

On the transmission topic I was thinking the other day. In some top end cars like Ferrari's they are now using a manual transmission complete with a clutch that is computer controlled so it bahaves like an automatic yet you have the effeciencies of the manual. Also, they have the manual mode where the paddles behind the steering wheel are used to up and down shift. Man, wouldn't that sort of thing be cool on an Insight.

 

[glitch]

Wouldn't work

I don't think it would work due to our cars not having actual gears. The shift kit would help if it had gears and so would a techtronic shifting system (where you can control when the automatic shifts). But this type of transmission in our cars are more fuel efficient. I borrowed my brothers 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse and it was strange being in a car that shfited again. It also had a bigger steering wheel (i guess our steering wheels are slightly smaller) and it was strange hearing noise come out of the rear speakers. hehe. You get used to our cars and the way they "drive"