How does switching a car into sport mode work?
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Sport mode programming tells the gearbox to favor higher rpm, in order to keep the engine closer to the power band — the rev ranges where it makes the most horsepower and torque….most cars are programmed for fuel efficiency, so the ‘sport’ mode will keep the vehicle in the optimal power band (wasting more fuel) to ensure you are faster.
Switching into a sports/track/race mode on a car adjusts certain aspects of the car, mainly throttle pedal response, suspension stiffness, gearbox behaviour and steering heaviness.
What this can do is add more drivability to the car. You can make finer adjustments to the pedal as it is more responsive, the suspension may become stiffer for improved handling at the expense of comfort, if you drive an automatic the gearbox may shift into the next gear at a higher RPM or shift faster, and the steering will become stiffer/heavier for finer adjustments to direction.
In terms of how it actually works in my experience with Volkswagen Audi Group ECUs, they have multiple chunks of data, or tables, that represent each part of the cars function but each being slightly different depending on situation/condition. It might have 4 tables for fueling, 3 tables for the throttle, 4 for gearbox and 2 for steering. What the ECU will do when it enters a sport/race/performance mode is switch between the tables for each function depending on what mode, so one mode may be for ‘comfort’ setting and another for a performance setting.
The transmission will stay in a lower gear than usual. Keeping engine rpm higher allowing more power strokes in the same period of time and increasing power to the wheels.
It can also change the behavior of valves, timing, fuel/air mixture and in some designs compression ratio. For a less efficient but more powerful result.
The exact changes will vary depending on the design.
It depends on the car – in general if you have an adaptive suspension the suspension will firm up. If you have steer by wire, brake by wire, or throttle by wire, all of those will get much more sensitive. The car will hold the idle a little higher, the transmission will stay in the torque band longer, and maybe your exhaust opens up so you can get a nice sound.
It can do a lot of different things, usually one or more of:
* Remap the transition to favor high rpm before shifts instead of normally favoring lower rpm to save fuel
* Faster throttle response (it becomes “twitchy”, slightest pressure, lot more throttle)
* Change to exhaust sound
* Tighten the steering
* Tighten the suspension
* Remapping the engine ECU (valve timing, etc.) for more power
Wasn’t there also this thing that it just plays more engine noises through the sound system, giving you more perception of speed? Or is that an urban legend?
What it does depends on what it’s intended to do. It may do certain things, it may do all the things.
Options include:
1) Higher RPMs intended to maintain peak output from the engine for longer periods. Transmission shifting will sometimes happen faster, and more frequently.
2) Traction control will sometimes throttle power output while it diverts power away from a slipping wheel. This can be disabled, allowing full power output even if you’re just spinning your tires.
3) The fuel pumps become more responsive. When you hit the gas on an injected engine, there’s a pump spraying fuel in… more pedal means more gas injected. But it doesn’t instantly ramp up, it smooths out that increase. In sport mode, it spends less time smoothing out that increase.
4) ECU can run a different program, allowing a forced air engine to use a more aggressive boost profile, tighter timings, etc.
For my Toyota Camry, the “S” mode is mentioned somewhere as “sporty” in a manual, I think, but not the kind of sport mode others are describing. All it does is prevents the automatic transmission from going above whatever gear you set. So if you set it on 3, that will be the highest gear it goes to.
The only practical reasons I’ve ever used this mode:
* Going down a long steep hill (like a mountain pass), instead of constantly applying your brakes, which will overheat them and cause them to fail, you put it in the lower gear so that you use “engine braking” instead. The engine revs like crazy but it can save your life.
* Going up a hill that’s just steep enough to cause the automatic transmission to keep shifting between two gears. When it “can’t decide” like that, often you might just want to make it stay in the lower gear.
* If I ever need to suddenly accelerate, it *might* be faster than flooring it with the automatic transmission. Maybe.
Computer go brr.
Seriously, it just shifts some variables around and then the computer does what’s programmed of it. Sport map asks for more fuel? Done. Computer wants the electric steering to tighten? Done. Computer want the suspension to stiffen? Done.
High RPM – faster to accelerate but uses more gas.
Low RPM – slower to accelerate but saves gas.
Cars are designed to have low RPM. When it’s sports mode, it forces it to have higher RPM so you can speed up faster. There’s other mode too like traction, those changes too (if available).
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