Perfect Shift Pattern Guide

When you start playing CSR2, you focus on getting a perfect start and then making good/perfect shifts to get the best time. This works completely fine for the storyline missions and also maybe the first Tempest trials but at some point you will learn that the perfect shifting points have one problem – they won’t give you the best time!

You might have seen the splash screen notice saying “perfect shift indicators assume that you have full traction”…. and that’s the problem!

You don’t always have full traction and this might give you wheelspin that will ruin your total time, especially in the lower gears or in connection with using nitro.

So, in this guide I will show you everything you need to know to understand shift pattern and how to test them on your cars and to really get the best time with your car.

Shift Pattern In CSR2

Have you heard the expression “beating the dyno” before? In the beginning in CSR2, you assume that the dyno time you see in the tuning menu is the best time possible, but that’s actually the time when your car does a perfect start and perfect shifts, nothing else.

In many cases using the nitro later or jumping gears are able to get you a better time than the dyno because you can avoid wheelspin.

Wheelspin is your biggest enemy and the first indication that you need to shake up your shifting pattern or use nitro in a later gear.

If you see that you have that wheelspin flash a lot in lower gears it’s time to test.

Step 1 – Find Gears

Go to the tuning menu and make a few test races so you have a solid time by doing nothing else than the perfect start and perfect shifts – also keep in mind your dyno time that shouldn’t be much apart from that.

Now you can start and shift directly into the 2nd gear after start and then do perfect shifts from there – do that a few times and look at the final times, normally they should be better now.

You can then also try jumping the second gear ( or even the third gear) until you only see wheelspin a little bit to not anymore.

That’s the point where you can add nitro in.

Step 2 – Add Nitro To Shift Pattern

Jumping gears is ideal to get into a gear where nitro will accelerate you fast without any wheelspin – finding that position is crucial and normally will give you a nice dyno beating time after all.

Here’s my normal test pattern (full):

• Directly shift into 2nd gear after start and use nitro
• Jump into 3rd gear right after start and use nitro
• Jump into 3rd gear right after start and perfect shift to 4th gear before using nitro
• Jump into 4th gear right after start and then directly use nitro

I usually try them, especially with cars that have high RPM where the first gears are often just wheelspin-party, simply go though that list and note the times you get there – but do like 10 test runs to get a feeling and a time that’s not random 😉

Why Not Using Videos?

YouTube is full of videos of all cars with the best shifting pattern and it’s a good orientation where to start – still, be aware that most of the cars shown there are fully maxed and this changes the tuning and might not apply to your upgrade stage.

Still, if you see your car there been used with jumping a few gears right after the start, you can be sure that this is something that you can adapt yourself even when having lower upgrade stages (follow my checklist above).