I have a 6 week old twin air with approximately 1500 miles on the clock. I normally drive the car but earlier today my husband used the car and came back complaining of pull back in 1st gear. He said he was accelertaing hard in first gear to move quickly on a round about and the car seemed to automatically slow him down which he was more than a little concerned about. We have been out this evening to try and replicate what happened and I think I know what he means. Our styles of driving are very different and I never accelerate hard - but I guess I might have to one day in an emergency situation. Has anyone else experienced this?

He probably hit the rev limiter which if driving hard takes about half a second!

Sounds like some driving lessons plus a beginners guide to mechanics and mechanical sympathy might be required. 1st gear is more or less just to move off, I think what your husband was after was 2nd gear.

Yup, thinks that would be the rev limiter.

Cheers

D

Have you got ESP ?. Hard acceleration into a roundabout can cause it to activate, which will feel like the engine is being retarded.

Hitting the rev limiter makes a lot of noise and I am pretty sure anybody who drive regulary would notice this as a cause.

poggy said:

Have you got ESP ?. Hard acceleration into a roundabout can cause it to activate, which will feel like the engine is being retarded.

Hitting the rev limiter makes a lot of noise and I am pretty sure anybody who drive regulary would notice this as a cause.

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You have to be pretty sideways for the ESP to activate, are you not confusing ESP with ASR?

I lump it all under ASR, ESP as it's all part of the same system.

I actually thought you were on about Extra Sensory Perception.

I can't keep up with all these acronyms.

What I do know is that if my wife thought I was thrashing her beloved TA she'd be loathe to let me drive it. drive it.

Thanks for all your comments. No we don't have ESP. Hubby accepts he may have hit the rev limiter but his concern was that the car seemed to slow down.

And , yes, i get really twitchy when he drives my beloved 500 as he has a tendency to drive it, in my opinion, too hard!

ovalbeanie said:

Thanks for all your comments. No we don't have ESP. Hubby accepts he may have hit the rev limiter but his concern was that the car seemed to slow down.

And , yes, i get really twitchy when he drives my beloved 500 as he has a tendency to drive it, in my opinion, too hard!

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Why is he hitting the rev limiter? Ideally you should never really hit the rev limiter. He's thrashing the car.......

ovalbeanie said:

Thanks for all your comments. No we don't have ESP. Hubby accepts he may have hit the rev limiter but his concern was that the car seemed to slow down.

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The acceleration would stop suddenly, giving the impression of rapid deceleration. Like when you see sky divers open their parachute and they seem to shoot up when they only slow down.

ovalbeanie said:

Thanks for all your comments. No we don't have ESP. Hubby accepts he may have hit the rev limiter but his concern was that the car seemed to slow down.

And , yes, i get really twitchy when he drives my beloved 500 as he has a tendency to drive it, in my opinion, too hard!

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Uncomfortable though it may be I wouldn't worry quite so much unless he is standing on the rev limiter all the time in which case he needs a good telling off and a lesson in why torque is better than power.

Just remember that these cars were designed to be driven by italians and inherently that means about 10-25% harder than most UK drivers would be comfortable with. That doesn't mean there aren't drivers in the UK that drive like italians (or worse) just that our perception of "too hard" is a little inadequate.

How high is the rev limiter on the Twin Air. I dont even hit it on my 1.4 and that engine performs at its best at high revs.

mjsmke said:

How high is the rev limiter on the Twin Air. I dont even hit it on my 1.4 and that engine performs at its best at high revs.

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Rev limiter is up near the 7000 on the 1.4 (which is the limit of the engine given the hydraulic tappets). Seems much lower on the TA from memory on my test drive. Reckon it's a shade over 6000.

This youtube doesn't show one hitting the rev limiter though...

306maxi said:

Why is he hitting the rev limiter? Ideally you should never really hit the rev limiter. He's thrashing the car.......

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If you'd driven a TA you wouldn't have wrote that. You hit the limiter in no time at all in the TA, even the salesman did it twice on my test drive.

The first two gears are pretty low in the TA, so if you drive it like a 'normal' car, you'll tend to bounce off the limiter a lot - it's very free revving.

And if you know where the limiter is you won't hit it

No, but 100rpm shy of it is fine, and you don't get the big jolt when the fuelling and ignition is cut

The TA has a fairly 'soft' cut and a just under 6K limit if you are in eco mode.

Cheers

D

bgunn said:

The first two gears are pretty low in the TA, so if you drive it like a 'normal' car, you'll tend to bounce off the limiter a lot - it's very free revving.

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First gear in the TA is lowest of the ratios (4.100 to 1) in the 500 range (the 1.4 is the highest at 3.545 to 1) but 2nd gear is the same across the range at (2.158 to 1).

rallycinq said:

The TA has a fairly 'soft' cut and a just under 6K limit if you are in eco mode.

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Didn't realise that it came in that early in eco mode. Is it higher up the rev band in 'normal' mode ?