There has been much discussion about how to get the most out of the CVT. LX guys have it easy, throw it in "L" and hammer it. But the EX does not have a gear that automatically finds the lowest ratio, so I've been experimenting with different methods and may have found the best way.

This is for situations when you know you will have to accelerate hard and have time to prepare.

From a stop:
1. Put the transmission in Sport mode
2. Select manual gear ratio 1 by clicking the left paddle
3. Floor it and accelerate
4. At about 6,000 RPM pop the gear selector into Drive, as long as your foot is still flat, drive will hold the RPM there until you lift

The thought of selecting M1 from the sport mode is to set the car up from launch for the lowest possible gear ratio and for the best throttle response. But you don't wan to let the car select M2 as you will loose time in the ratio-shift and the engine will no longer be at peak power levels.

Anyone else use this approach?

 

What about tapping the accelerator until it hits 6000rpm as well? I have some decent results doing this. Tested this last night (On a closed track of course).
You can do this in any gear ('D', 'S' or 'L') with similar results. It'll get the rpm up quickly for more horsepower and it can be done anytime while you are driving. No changing the gears or anything. I do this any time I want to accelerate quickly, whether in city traffice or highway driving to make a pass.

 

Hey Myaxl, yeah I use the "Myaxl double tap" quite frequently in normal driving especially when trying to get up to speed in a highway merge. My thinking is that if it's in Manual 1, there is no lower ratio for it to jump down to with a double tap, because you've manually told it to select the lowest possible ratio, while flooring it in "L" or normal "S" it might taper the gear ratio up slightly (I don't know why they engineered it to do this).

Am I making sense? The theory is that M1 (using the paddle shifters to select the first ratio) is the lowest possible gear ratio that the CVT system can produce. So double tapping would do nothing.

 

This does make sense and sounds very interesting. I'm interested in seeing what other's thoughts are on this. I have no paddle shifter but it's still something to learn from. Thanks!

 

Seems to me just putting it in Sport mode selects the lowest gear ratio at a stop.

 

Any idea why Honda didn't put L mode in EX. Honda recommends to use S and L modes while going up/down hill for acceleration/breaking. S mode in EX is for 7-speed manual shifting model. What if same one wants same S and L mode LX behavior with EX?

 

The EX and above have paddle shifters... many more manual selections than just "Low" They can be used in Drive or S

and the S mode is for more than use with the paddle shifters. It's like a Drive that chooses gear ratios for performance. You don't have to use the paddle shifters with it.

 

What about EX drivers who doesn't use paddle shifters? They still need default functionality similar to LX right?

 

Putting it in "S" automatically selects a higher RPM, so I'm thinking that if that is not enough, another click of the down shift paddle (left) will essentially give you the "L" mode but give you more options (clicks) for how "L"ow to go.

Cool trick, if nobody has noticed, but to pull it out of "S" numbered gearing mode, you can pull back on the right paddle for a couple of seconds. This eliminates the hard ratios until you use the paddle shifters again, assuming you want to stay in "S" mode for a while longer, otherwise moving to "D" will do the same.

 

Yeah, I agree that is a cool trick. I use it all the time to keep my revs from going too high. Mostly after downshifting to use engine-braking, then having to re-accelerate, for example when slowing for a red light that then turns green.