I'm talking about automatic transmissions here. How does the car know how to make it more "sporty" when shifted into S or something similar? What does it do when it is shifted into S mode? Does it like make the engine run rich or something? I've looked everywhere for an answer but haven't found anything. Thanks a ton!
All it really does is change what RPM the transmission shifts at. In normal mode, the car will shift earlier, at lower RPM. This is useful for normal traffic, and low speed roads. It saves gasoline. By low RPM, I mean in the 3-4k RPM range. Put it into sport mode however, and it will allow the engine to rev higher in the same gear, so like up to 5-6k RPM. This will be readily apparent if you give it a lot of gas, it will wait even longer to shift. This allows you to access more of the power and torque of the engine.
so it doesn't actually change the engine at all, just affects the timing of the transmission? thank you so much, I appreciate it
In most cases throttle is more sensitive as well so car accelerates with less delay
Not only that, it will keep the engine at a higher RPM. My car will cruise at 2500-3000 RPM in normal mode, 1500-2000 in eco mode and 4000-4500 in sport mode. So hitting the throttle in eco mode does barely nothing, in normal mode it gives you a little push and it sports mode it gets you to the red line really quickly, while also burning more fuel.
Sport mode in my car puts it into the turbo range… it makes a huge difference to eco or normal where you can feel the lag as you sink the boot in and things start to spool up.
Can confirm, my car is a manual transmission with sport mode and it feels quicker because the throttle is more sensitive to input.
No no no, manuals don't have sport mode. You put it in "R" for racing.
No, for his transmission, it needs to go into P for poser.
you put it in L for launch
N for nitro.
D for Drag
PUT IT IN H!!!!
Since you asked specifically about the transmission, yes.
A lot of higher end cars also tighten the sensitivity of the wheel, the pedals, stuff like that. My brother had a dope car that literally lowered itself on its suspension.
Lincoln Mark VIII?
Range Rover SVR. He leased it for a year as a splurge at the end of his finance dick era
In modern cars, it absolutely can change.the engine. It can actually increase power and responsiveness by changing to more aggressive ignition timing curves, fuel maps, and camshaft/valve timing.
It can, but very few road cars actually do this. For the vast majority it only changes the throttle map and transmission shift points.
Some cars will have some engine calibration changes as well.
This all depends on the car. Some systems are more advanced than other. Like smoother vs harsher shifts. Or hybrids may change charging/discharging profiles or prevent the engine from shutting down when it would otherwise.
Some cars will reduce the AC compressor speed and fan speed in Econ mode and put them back to normal in Normal and Sport modes. Fancy cars might change the ammount of steering assist, giving a heavier feel in Sport mode.
Depends on the car completely. Just look at an hp tuners video. Cars have different maps for different modes. Some pickups and SUV’s have a tow haul, completely different set of parameters apply. Depending on the car, you will definitely have different shift points, but you may also get aggressive downshifts (like attempting to keep the engine at 3k rpm) and you’ll likely get different air to fuel targets and most importantly much more aggressive ignition timing as well as adjustments to any variable valve timing systems. Bottom line, depends on the car, depends on the engine, depends on the tune (map).
I'm considering building a GMT900 Sierra into a very mild hybrid (capacitor driven stop-start) and I have HP tuners just so I can mess around in the software and learn.
I've set everything in the "normal" pattern to be maximum MPG mode, and "tow haul" is basically just "ECO off" and returns you to what "normal" used to be.
Exactly. The equivalent in a manual car would just be "how aggressively are you driving/shifting?"
Not exactly. A lot of times it will also change the tune of the ECU to produce more power. Most cars are throttle by wire these days and going to sport mode will change the sensitivity of the pedal so that it is more responsive. Same with the power steering, it will change the level of sensitivity for the steering. Also the braking sensitivity.
Just to clarify, usually it doesn't change the total possible power output, it just changes the response curve.
To that end, with an automatic, "sport mode" will see the transmission downshift more quickly, and possibly more than a single gear, in order to accommodate the throttle inputs.
I have a phev(chevy volt) and has a sport mode. It allows higher discharge rates from the battery and engine to the wheels. In normal driving mode these rates are reduced.
When you say, "change the engine," I'm assuming you're talking about engine tuning, yes? In that case it depends on the vehicle.
Modern vehicles are almost entirely computer controlled. Somebody experienced, with the correct devices, can modify a car's tuning electronically. Sport mode does this as well on certain vehicles, basically just loading preset tuning specifications. In addition, it can also tighten the steering and accelerator to make them more sporty feeling (more sensitive).
I know in my vehicle there's a very noticeable difference in performance while in sport mode vs normal that goes beyond when it shifts. Also a distinct difference in fuel consumption even if I try to drive as close to normal as possible.
it may or may not but it probably does both. On the engine side it might open the throttle (the flap controlling how much air goes in) faster and further. More air= more fuel can be burned= more power. More suck means bigger bang in the suck, squeeze, bang, blow equation.
It probably has a different throttle/ecu mapping so not only does a hold a “gear” longer for higher rpms, it changes how it reaches a given rpm.
In terms of real changes yeah, and as others have stated, there can be other minor adjustments.
But the transmission change also results in the engine behaving differently. To simplify, the revs are the amount of power the engine is making. Generally, you want to go at a certain speed. That's what's fixed. So if the transmission is on a higher gear, the engine can achieve that speed at a lower RPM, so less power. If sport mode keeps the gear low, then the engine will rev higher to get you to that speed. So practically speaking, sport mode does make your car produce more power. Where does that power go if you're moving at the same speed? Torque. That's acceleration.
It depends on the model. Some will have a more aggressive throttle response, meaning the throttle opens more earlier in the pedal travel, some actually remap the entire shift sequence so that the car shifts itself to stay in then optimum torque band, and some just delay upshifts so you rev higher. Its all down to the car
It makes the engine more responsive.
Usually the sport mode tells the car's computer to optimize the system for power and performance instead of economy and comfort. This usually means operating the engine at higher RPMs where there's more torque and power, but it can also mean faster and sharper shifting between gears, as well as changing the throttle mapping of how much power the engine will put out at each degree of pressing the throttle and how quickly it will register changes. Some cars with active suspension may also change ride height, and cars with a limited slip differential may change the programming of how much slip and wheel spin is allowed in different situations. For the engine, it's also possible to change other factors such as cam and valve timing, fuel mixture, and so on.
On older cars with less integrated systems it would just change shift points / torque converter lockup to favour aggressive driving.
On newer stuff it can enable all sorts of changes - gearbox shift patterns, engine tune, throttle response, suspension setup, right down to opening exhaust baffles for all the good noises and changing the interior lighting colour / dashboard instruments...
In Land Rover for example the different off-road modes change the engine & gearbox behaviours, adjust the air suspension behaviour, ABS & traction control system behaviour, engage locking diffs, all sorts of stuff.
Some high end cars can even stiffen up the bolsters in the seats by inflating air pockets, and there's at least one supercar where the dashboard gauges flip over to cut down the distractions.
Some cars will also have faster throttle response when in sport mode.
You can downshift while driving in sport mode to take some stress off the brakes, but you are just putting the stress on the engine instead, so not always a good idea but if you do a lot of hills, it can be useful.
If it's a DCT it can also ready for shifts up in preference to down to improve acceleration. In normal mode as you slow down it readies the next shift down for smoother shifts.
Most automatics I've driven try to keep the car at about 2K RPM in normal mode.
Except my fucking Polo GTI. In normal mode, it keeps at about 1,3-1,5k RPM, and in sports mode it keeps at about 2,7-2,8 RPM. I wish there was an in between setting.
my focus runs at like 800 to 1.8k RPM so if you're in the market that's an option lol.
I'm pretty sure you can tune the throttle body to make it idle higher iirc
Then wtf does sport mode does on CVT cars lol.
More throttle response probably
Well dammit. Now I want to switch to sport mode (which will trash my 31 mpg fuel economy). 😉
In some vehicles, it also tightens the suspension a bit.
Manual vehicles can also have driving modes, and the same things changed in them can be changed on sport modes in automatic cars.
The OP did specifiy transmission changes, and shift points are the only thing changed there. But there are all sorts of other adjustments that can be made to other things about the vehicle.
Electronically adjustable suspensions are relatively common now, and often have a different "default" for each driving mode even if you can futher customize the suspension settings themselves.
The ECU will often have different throttle response at the least, and often will have restrictions on rpm and max power lifted or changed, which is something that can be done differently for each gear: you might normally be governed to like 50% power in first gear, 70% power in second, and 80% power in others, and then max sport mode could remove all that. If your engine is capable of selectively turning off some cylinders, your driving modes may affect how that works or whether that system is active at all.
There's actually quite a lot driving modes can do these days. Transmission shift points are just the original reason the become common on automatics: so you can have more economical (low) shift points for some driving, and more aggressive (high) shift points other times. Which is something you control all the time with a manual.
Eh? Normal shifts around 2k rpm in my car (automatic petrol Skoda Octavia), sport at around 2.5-3k. What kind of car is doing 4k rpm before shifting in normal mode?
Most common thing is changing the shift-up points to allow the engine to rev higher (producing more power) in each gear. Other parameters can be things like the gear-change speed is moved from “nice and smooth” to “just ram it in there”
Transmissions allow the engine and wheels to rotate at different speeds. The engine may have a working range between 600-8000 RPM. The engine may make the MOST power between 5500-6200 RPM (power band).
Most of the time it wants to be efficient - keep the engine at lower RPM while delivering adequate power.
In sport more The transmission will do what it can to make sure the engine stays in the power band. Additionally it will likely slam between gears faster.
It changes the shift points, it raises the rpms limit before it shifts so you stay in power more. For example you are driving and at 2300 rpm it switches from 5th to 6th drops back down to 1500 rpm and away you go. In sport mode it waits until you're at 3400 rpm before it shifts to 6th and you drop down to 2400 rpm.
It's worse for you mpg because you are running the engine harder in a sense but it removes that "lag"
My car has a slight delay or lag when hitting the accelerator normally, in sports mode that is gone and it's instantaneous acceleration.
yeah the Isuzu M-UX I used to drive had that issue, I think we put in a thing to help with the acceleration iirc. when it was in manual mode it would usually quash the delay by a large margin if not entirely
The biggest difference will be they the engine will shift at higher RPM. Standard automatic shifting shifts at the lowest possible target rpm for the next gear, sport mode shifts at the highest rpm for the current gear. Higher rpm generally equates to more power, but less fuel efficiency.
Engines and transmissions in modern sports cars are usually electronically controlled.
Sensors provide data like the position of the crank shaft, amount of oxygen in the exhaust, and temperatures. This data is fed into a computer that tells the injectors how much fuel to put in and when, when the spark plugs should fire, and when the transmission should shift, etc.
These settings are called 'mappings'.
Sport mode is a different mapping than normal mode.
Normal mode is designed to be more fuel efficient and cause less wear and tear on the engine and transmission.
Sport more will add more fuel, let the engine rev higher, and tell the transmission to shift at high RPMs. This all translates to more performance, but uses more fuel and wears out the components faster.
In the vast majority of cars, it just stays in lower gears longer and keeps the RPM up. When accelerating, the shifts come at a higher rpm. When decelerating, the downshifts come earlier, which again, keeps you at a higher RPM. This ensures you get a more robust response when you go back on the throttle. Often in an automatic car, you don’t get a lot of acceleration when you suddenly hit the gas because the car has chosen a higher gear for cruising. It either a sort of slogs through the lower rpm’s of the higher gear or accelerates briefly, realizes you want to go fast, and then downshifts. In the sport mode, you’re in a lower gear more often so you get the immediate response.
In certain high performance cars, the sport mode does a lot more than that. It defaults to different mapping in the engine, faster gear changes, more sensitive throttle input and sometimes even changes the steering assist. You want a much heavier steering wheel when driving fast than when you’re simply commuting.
But your average commuter car doesn’t do that. It just stays in lower gears.
My dad had a BMW. In sport mode, it would make use of 1st gear; it normally starts at 2nd gear even from a standstill.
The computer adjusts when the transmission shifts to higher engine RPM’s. It sounds and feels more sporty but you burn more fuel since you’re not shifting at the most economical moment.
I've found it to be more responsive.
Computers control shifting and try to keep the RPMs (rate of engine spinning) low, and under control. If you're constantly revving and jumping high to low, your fuel consumption goes up. If they Rev high, you use more fuel. If you can keep it smooth, a steady rate and shift at lower RPMs, you'll save fuel.
In normal mode it may learn your driving style and try to shift accordingly. If you set it to eco mode, you may notice it not being as responsive on the gas as it isn't going to take minor changes in pedal pressure as a reason to start revving. This may make it easier to conserve fuel in town as you go over bumps and bounce, may press the pedal accidentally.
If you put it in sport, it will be much more sensitive to your input and shift faster to give power and speedy response at the cost of fuel efficiency. This is great if you're trying to pass people or preforming lane changes where you'd like to accelerate more efficiently, not pull into a lane and be at a standstill because the car is semi ignoring your input.
I see, so it generally becomes more sensitive to throttle input? I have noticed that in my own car as well, it does get a bit touchy when in sport.
The transmission control logic is based on tables of values that look at various parameters (engine rpm, engine load, accelerator pedal position, and vehicle speed). It uses these parameters to decide what gear to be in.
Placing the transmission into different modes just changes what gear and line pressure should be selected for a given combination of parameters.
In short, it will make shifts firmer (by increasing line pressure) and will let the engine rev higher before shifting to the next gear. It may also delay up shifts when you let off the throttle so the transmission doesn’t have to downshift again when you accelerate out of a turn.
While I can’t prove it, I suspect most vehicles also (or maybe only) remap the accelerator pedal for different modes. For example, ECO mode might map 75% of the pedal travel to 50% of power output while sport mode might map the pedal so 25% of travel equals 50% output. That would have the effect of making the car feel more aggressive without actually making changes to the engine and transmission control logic. Remapping the pedal is much easier to do with some simple math versus testing and qualifying 2 more sets of engine and transmission tables for the different driving modes.
for some reason even when I'm just in drive, my car will still rev high and shift late when you give it a lot of throttle but returns to normal after you let go a bit. is that similar to other cars or is it just my model? does the ECU map the engine on the fly or does it just take the tables and modifies it in real time?
All automatic transmissions, even dating back to the full hydraulic days, have had this behavior.
The best analogy for how the hydraulic ones worked is that the accelerator pedal and wheel speed are in a tug of war. When the wheel speed starts to win (car gets faster) the trans will upshift. If the accelerator pedal is winning, the car will downshift. There’s a little more to it with corrections for engine load and rpm but that’s the basics. So when you are accelerating hard, it will rev higher.
When we switched to electronic control, this behavior was replicated but it opened the door to be able to modify shift points on the fly.
For performance oriented cars, I think they are probably actually switching between different shift tables. For cheaper cars, I think they are just doing pedal remapping.
the ECU (engine computer) will do at least 3 things.
change the throttle mapping. imagine the gas pedal is a volume knob that goes from 1,3,5,7 and 10 where 1 is when you lightly step and 10 is when you floor it. in sport it becomes like 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. this makes the throttle open earlier on a light step and also suddenly feel very sensitive to where your foot is.
delayed upshift. in normal or eco the ECU will shift earlier to prioritise the engine RPM being low as much as possible (shifting up drops the RPM because the next gear is bigger). this is more fuel efficient but acceleration is not the best the engine is capable of. in sport the ECU will wait until RPM is just above the point of peak power (acceleration) output before shifting up, so that the next gear is also in peak power range. this prioritises acceleration over fuel efficiency.
for the same reason Sport will also proactively downshift earlier when RPM drops below the peak power range.
In my VW, in addition to changing the throttle response/shift points, it alters the suspension. Where “comfort” mode makes the suspension softer to even out the bumps, “sort” mode makes it tighter so the car feels more responsive. It makes it feel more engaging and fun to drive, but feeling every bump on a long trip is a drag.
yeah I've noticed that in my ford too, I don't think mine changes the suspension though.
In my car(‘18 BMW 440i) it will hold gears longer after lifting off the gas, it will delay shifts to a higher RPM under partial throttle, shifts noticeably faster and stops using 8th gear. Exactly how heavily it will do that’s things is highly dependent on how I am driving the car. If I put it in sport but keep driving normally, it won’t go much over 3k RPM. But if I put it in sport and floor it, it will hold 5k+ rpm until I really lift off the gas.
If I put it into sport in conjunction with setting the car to sport+ mode(this is set via a toggle next to the shifter, this changes the throttle mapping to be more aggressive at the lower end, tightens up the shocks, and increases steering effort), then shift manually, it will stop upshifting at redline and just bang off the limiter until I tell it to upshift. It will always downshift when the RPMs drop too low(around 1k).
As for how I put into sport mode, for my car it’s sliding the shifter to the left while it’s in drive.
Having said that, exactly what a transmission does when it’s in sport mode will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so just because it does these things on my car doesn’t mean it will do the same on others.
In the case of Ford vehicles it does three things:
Disables Auto Stop/Start on the engine
Increases the shift point RPM
Engages a “semi-manual” transmission mode, meaning that if you select a certain gear using the paddles on the steering wheel, it will remain in that gear unless either you shift out of it or the system detects that the engine is at risk of serious damage.
I think most cars do that when in manual-matic mode, they'll kick the engine down gears if it's going to stall the engine I think.
I think it’s more the other way, at least in my case it won’t let me shift to a gear that could over rev the engine
I think it's both actually, or at least my car does that. it'll shift up if it's going to damage the engine and it'll shift down if it's going to stall from too low of an rpm
That is what happens for me in normal Drive mode, I can temporarily drop it down a gear but once the engine gets up to the regular shift point it reverts back to automatic. In Sport mode once I select a gear, it will hold that gear and limit my speed until I shift up. It comes in handy when I’m either going up a long incline or dropping down a hill.
A lot of good answers here already, so I'll just add an anecdote relevant to my own car much like everyone else.
I drive a 2017 Camaro SS, it has an 8-speed transmission with 4 drive modes: Snow/ice, touring, sport, and track.
In snow/ice mode, it very drastically cuts the amount of throttle response you get, and will try to always be in the highest gear that doesn't stall the engine to help prevent you from spinning the tires. Upshifts as soon as the engine rpm hits a point where the next gear will be at 900-1100rpm.
Tour and Sport actually have the exact same throttle and transmission shift patterns in my case, you could consider them the "daily driving comfort" shift mode. What makes Sport mode different however, is the availability of a secondary shift protocol: Performance Shift Mode, which by default is off, but will turn itself on with one of 3 inputs. Those being the gas pedal touching the floor, the brake pedal touching the floor, or the onboard g-force sensor detecting a very hard turn. Once activated, the transmission locks itself out of 7th and 8th gears entirely, and will try to keep your engine RPM above 3500, ready for you to put your foot back down as soon as the turn is over. Though, the reason for it activating under heavy braking is actually to assist in stopping the car, engine braking in addition to friction braking.
Finally in Track mode, the throttle and transmission are tuned to more closely resemble a car with a directly connected throttle cable instead of an electronically controlled one, giving you more power with less pedal (though max power is still the same) and has more aggressive shifts in the default shift mode, allowing you to rev the engine higher and downshifting at a higher rpm than the standard "just don't stall" rpm. Track also has access to performance shift mode, but that secondary protocol is identical between sport and track mode.
an SS you say? aren't you fancy lol
but yeah, I think the RS model of mine actually has a quote unquote "race" mode (it's a fucking focus, not exactly a powerhouse here) but mines on the "trend" model so it's only got a sport. as for off-road, mine just tells me to get fucked as theres nothing to help with that at all.
Depending on the type of transmission, putting in sport can result in harder / more violent shifts from increased clamping force.
Two things. First is throttle response and transmission timing. Modern passenger vehicles are optimized for efficiency by default. When you slam on the gas the car isn't going to instantly open the throttle all the way. It's going to ramp up to full power over a few seconds. If it opened up all the way instantly that would give you more power but also it could break the engine or any other number of problems. But sports mode takes that response ramp up and shortens it. Next sports mode also changes shifting timing for your transmission gears. Efficient shifting is all about keeping the engine in a range of rpm that burns the least amount of fuel for the most amount of power. Sports mode shifts that to focus more on power over fuel consumption. Now your transmission will shift a little later to help you push more power to the ground and accelerate faster
Second is with cars that have all wheel drive. A car with AWD will constantly adjust which wheel has power to give you the best traction possible. However, we can adjust the program. In sport mode the car will start by giving all 4 wheels equal amounts of power. This distributes the load and helps you accelerate faster as well as limiting the chance of wheel slips. The downside is spreading the power out over all tires is also less fuel efficient.
All these changes are very subtle and hard to notice in most passenger cars because the shift is subtle and the gain in power and acceleration is about a second reduce in the 0-60 time.
just go qualm my curiosity, what could happen if the throttle opened up all the way instantly? what could break?
For electric vehicles, it changes the go pedal sensitivity. Not impossible that it does’t make the gas pedal more sensitive for gas powered vehicles.
I don't drive an electric vehicle, but I've heard that they have instant torque when you press on the accelerator. is that true? if it is, there's really no need for a sports mode if all they're going to do is change the pedal
That’s not exactly how electric motors work. It’s more that they can provide full torque from 0-max rpm, whereas ICE’s need to rev up to achieve full power. It’s not like touching the go pedal is full throttle, it’s still proportional to how far down it’s pressed. We have an EV Kona, and sport mode just makes the pedal more sensitive, and economy mode means you need to press it a lot more to go anywhere.
ahhhh, yeah that makes more sense, I mean you don't see a fan start instantly spinning at it's max speed do you..
on a side note, I've heard that the Kona is a lot better than something like the ioniq, in your opinion is that true?
Don’t have any experience with the Ioniq, but it does have a larger battery which means larger range. The Kona is like 260 in summer weather, I think Ioniq is closer to 360. Otherwise, it looks like it’s a sedan version of the same car. Both have very little room in the back seats. A breeze to drive through, and I think they still have the best battery warranty of all EV’s. Something like in 10 years it will still have at least 80% capacity.
Generally the shift mapping gets more aggressive (gears are held longer and downshifts happen sooner, keeping the RPMs higher and improving power delivery) and throttle map is sharper (more vroom for a given amount of gas pedal input).
Anyone see the movie “Moonfall”? In a Lexus NX switching to sport mode allows the car to jump over chasms.
in some vehicles, FYI, "sport mode" and "S-mode" are 2 different things...
"S-mode" can be a "manual shift mode" where the driver controls which gear the vehicle is in, usually by moving the shift lever up/down or using paddle shifters on higher performance cars.
"Sport mode" (as many have already answered) is an automatic drive mode setting that increases response from the accelerator pedal and allows the engine to hit higher RPM before shifting. in some vehicles, sport mode will may also adjust steering wheel sensitivity and/or prevent the vehicle from using overdrive gears.
One thing that I haven’t read here, is that in sports mode the car holds the gear when decelerating, instead of just going into neutral. I like it a lot more as it feels like I’m driving a manual. My wife changes it each time she gets in and drives.
My Audi has a 7 speed dual clutch transmission.
In normal mode, it uses all 7 gears and quickly shifts to the highest gear possible that won't cause the engine to stall. Like it'll already be in 7th gear at like 40 MPH.
In sport mode, it basically ignores 6th and 7th gears at normal legal(ish) speeds. Even at 70-80 MPH it won't go above 5th.
Its also much less aggressive about downshifting in normal mode. I have to pressing the accelerator down a good ways before it'll downshift. In sport mode, I barely tap the accelerator and it drops 1 or 2 gears.
In short, normal mode prioritizes fuel economy and comfort. Sport mode prioritizes responsiveness and acceleration.
One thing that is guarantee is that it will keep RPM at high in idle and shift late allowing full RPM range, ESC will be adjusted accordingly, accelerating pedal will be more responsive, suspension will be controlled and more stiff if available etc. depends on car and model but RPM, throttle and ESC will be affected 100%
Depends on the car, modern cars tend to change the ECU tune to a more power mode, higher boost levels, reduced traction/ safety systems
Older cars tended to just hold the gears longer so you would stay in peak power
I'm almost positive some cars it makes no difference
well I've got a 2016 focus with its little dinky I3 so it probably makes no difference lol
The other thing it will change on modern cars (electric throttle)
Will actually give you faster response on the accel pedal
In standard mode the throttle body will open slower to limit torque and try to prevent wheel spin
I have actually noticed that one time, when I floored it while going around a bend, it did slip a little bit. thanks for the response man!
From Ford's Edge ST literature:
Activating Sport mode transforms the Edge ST into a more aggressive performer. This mode alters several vehicle parameters:
Sport mode is ideal for spirited driving on winding roads or when looking for maximum performance. However, it’s worth noting that this mode typically results in higher fuel consumption.
I think Ford used AI to write that.
Basically a transmission is run off your engine through gears. Gear one has a 1-10 ratio, your transmission will now turn 10 times for every 1 rpm of your engine. Gear two is a 1-20 ratio. The allows faster speed but less torque. Torque is your ability to start moving. More torque means faster reaction from the tires. There’s also ideal rpm’s to shift.
When your car goes into sport mode on an automatic it can change how that gearing works to some extent and will also adjust how long you stay in each gear.
So instead of 1-10 for 500-1500rpm it’s 500-2500 rpm. Allowing more torque. Some will even make it 1-8 instead of 1-10.
Now these numbers are made up for the purpose of the question.
If someone sees something wrong please correct what I’ve said.
gearing is pretty hard to change unless you have a cvt with fixed steps, in that case you might be able to use different steps in sport mode. most transmissions are fixed in gear ratios unless you take them apart and change the gears, which is not a job you want done on the regular I think. sport mode in modern cars tends to change throttle response, uses a different engine map setting allowing more fuel and higher revs , possible a change in spark timing. higher rev limiter setting and in an automatic will shift at higher revs and if possible make faster gear changes.
most sport modes also change traction control settings, allowing for a bit more ‘fun’ before they intervene
It depends entirely on the car. My S60 shifts much more quickly in sport mode and shifts later in the RPM range. It also down shifts more aggressively and sooner than it would otherwise. It will not go into 8th gear below 80mph.
It also remaps the throttle to be more aggressive so less input gives you more throttle and the response is faster.
with my car, revs higher, throttle more responsive and steering stiffeners up.
A few bits mine does (bmw 435d) * keeps the revs higher when cruising. About 2500 instead of 1500 so its always in boost, at the cost of burning more fuel. * shifts quicker, not as smooth but almost instant change * increases the red line to around 5100 from 4800. * The pedal is much more sensitive and responsive
It does make the car feel alot more alive and eager to go fast, but if you timed it, I bet there’d be nothing in it
it tunes the shift's algorithm to be more reactive to user inputs, shifting down earlier (which may be less comfy) and keeping higher RPMs (especially when pressing down the throttle) or sustaining higher RPMs for longer before shifting up when the throttle is released.
it may have an impact on the ECU, but I don't know.
of course every automaker can do things differently, there isn't a standard... and there are different automatic gearbox technologies, like eg. dual clutch transmission, etc...
They just shift later pretty much, letting the engine get well into the power band and shifting once you're out of it. Without sport mode it will shift earlier, so you're never really getting peak engine power but there's better fuel economy.