OK, in a 1/4 mile drag race, what is the optimum time to shift, at around peak horsepower which is at 6400-6500rpm? What about shifting when the buzzer goes off? When does the buzzer go off? I have only taken my car up to about 5500rpms so far.

 

Put it on a dyno and find out when you make peak power.

 

that hardly tells him when to shift though.
once you've got your power curve and know how many revs drop when you change up, pick the point on the right side that when you shift will land you with the same power level on the left side. take into account redline as appropriate.

 

Based on my dyno chart, the best shift points are 1-2 at 6500 RPM (well, that's to help the transmission life), and redline thereafter.

Brandon

 

After my dyno with intake and RB full exhaust optimum shift points were 7200rpm 1-2 and 2-3 and 7000 3-4 and 4-5, using a shift point calculator at prestage.com.

 

What's it take to get the engine to rev up to 7500 or maybe even 8000, yet still make useable power and maintain reliability?

 

a big street port or half bridge engine
light rotors and light flywheel so it can easier to rev...
then again not a lot of turbo cars out there have high redline... which is a good thing
if u wanna rev high... then n/a is the way to go

 

Once you get in tune with your car, you will feel where it makes it's most power. As for me and my 89tII, in 2nd i shift at 7200rpm... in 3rd just under 7000 and if I'm ever racing in 4th gear, I'm usually so far ahead that I have to slow down rather than shift to 5th for more speed.

 

A bigger turbo.

No, really. The TII ports are more than big enough to make high-RPM power, it's just that the little stock turbo chokes airflow above about 6000 RPM. Streetports are nice, and certainly add power, but wouldn't really contribute to "rev-happiness" in a turbo motor, and on the stock turbo would probably move the power drop-off down by a few hundred RPM.

Brandon