What constitutes 'Driving it hard'??

[Ghostrider]

I've got a standard 91 Eunos and it's a cool little car as far as daily drivers go. When I am driving and once warmed up, I'm changing gear at around the 5-5,500rpm - sometimes 6,500 but don't find it has an awful lot to give after that.
Would you consider this 'driven hard'? Do you rag it to the redline in every gear? I don't do track days, they're usually short journeys and if I am cruising down to London then it's normally 80/85mph 4,000-ish revs.
I'm not Carlos Fandango but neither Miss Daisy. I just wondered how softly/hard everyone drove their cars. Might be different if you've got a garage queen/turbo/tuned/auto/2nd car?
Normally by about 300-340kms I'm on the empty and fill up. Usually 35l-ish goes in (Eunos' have a 45l tank?). A touch under £50 up here...

Opinions?

[garyou]

I'd call that enthusiastic driving not hard driving, there's not much happening below 3000rpm so I tend to drive it as you do although we do potter around in 5th sometimes. Haven't a clue what MPG I get, 20 quid in -> empty it -> 20 quid in although enthusiastic driving does tend to empty it faster...........

[Mazda Mender]

I have a very heavy foot and always have i take them to the limit many times because that is what they are for, i don't do track, i fill them up ,empty them and full them up again ,i have no idea what MPG i get form any of them and i don't care to know, the white one is waiting for a SC so we can make the hole in the Ozone even bigger. they do have a limit like every car on the road and track, the fun is getting there.
M-m

[garyou]

I bought mine from Paul Roddison, whilst on the test drive I said it wasn't as fast as I thought it would be (I was driving it like any other car - lowish revs expecting torque). His reply was to drive it like a motorbike (use the rev range), so long as there is half decent oil in there will be no issue as they are built that well. I took that advice and thats what I've done since when its practical to do so.

[Ghostrider]

Agreed. I try to drive it somewhere 'up there' - 3rd gear is your friend 'n' all that. But being such a revvy car I guess I wanted to know if everyone did that. I can potter but it never feels like it wants to. Seems much happier above 4k. Gets tiring though...

[binarypunk]

The red line is where it is for a reason...if it needed to be lower, it would be - Mazda have already left a fair margin for safety so they don't need to replace engines on warranty all the time - bounce it off the limiter every now and then and have some fun!

[Lazza]

Some models have a 7500rpm rev limit so bouncing off the 7250rpm limiter isn't going to hurt it. Mine is supercharged with over 240bhp and on track mine lives all day up at the limiter and never misses a beat so a standard road car has nothing to worry about
Whether it's worth going to the limiter on your car if the power is tailing off at top revs is a different matter...

[GlennyGills]

Found this link which shows power is almost continuous until peak revs.
http://rototest-research.eu/popup/performancegraphs.php?Flap=Graph&ChartsID=404

[Lazza]

That graph shows torque dropping off after 5500 and power dropping off quite quickly after 6500. Looking at that I'd say it would be best to change gear at 6500 which should keep the revs between peak torque and peak power.

[Ghostrider]

This is why I change at around there - doesn't seem to have a lot to give after that. I could understand on a track or in a race where changing gear instead of holding gear would save time but I don't think it needs to go to the limiter...