Hi all! I've been thinking for a good while now which is better. I'm talking about pure speed so nothing to do with fuel conservation. A friend of mine often supports the idea of short shifting while I tend to do the opposite. We'd often disuss which is better.

An advantage of short shifting is that it helps with traction but for the obvious reason of being in lower revs in the next gear, the car wouldn't be close to the optimum revs (max power revs) which is why I prefer to avoid it as much as possible. After years and years of driving, I'm happy to say that my throttle modulation is quite smooth so I can drive in a lower gear without spinning the wheels. I'm aware that it takes some concentration to ensure that the amount of throttle applied is maximising the tyre grip without spinning which would depend on the smoothness of the engine (snappy or smooth powerband), how much grip the tyres produce and downforce. Short shifting would ensure all these factors are relatively maximised but at the cost of slightly worse acceleration but if short shifting is applied, it could be said that you build up your speed smoothly without interruption while if you used a lower gear, the build up of speed would be interrupted by the gear shift.

So, technically, which is the best option?

Simple question with a simple answer: it depends.

If we're talking about racing, WR replays should answer your question. If we're talking about real life street driving, then I suppose short shifting is more convenient.

yea, if we are talking about WRs, it doesn't matter what is safer, just what is faster.