"If the driver manually shifts at 5800, or you leave it in Drive and program the governor to shift at 5800, what's the difference?"
well, for one it'll be easier to smoke my cig, drive with one knee and take a drink of soda while waving to the (by now) cheering grandstand audience, if i let it shift itself, seriously, first let me say i have nothing but respect and admiration for jake, ive tried to follow some threads hes been involved in (at least untill my head was spinning) concerning auto transmissions
suppose you rejet (or recurve the ignition or one of a bunch of other tuning tweaks) and surprise! you find a couple of tenths, but your peak rpm went up or down? (which, i think is likely)...pop the gov out and redo it? i guess you could, for next weekend...but, what if you find yourself at a slick track (or, even more likely) in a slick lane and you find yourself spinning when it shifts at a set point?...i'm would guess theres plenty of other possible/probable scenario's and i dont remember if he said the car is also street driven, but if hes still wrasslin a column shifter, i would assume so, and i'm no auto trans wiz (in fact its probably the only thing i still consider some sort of "black art", hence the afore mentioned admiration) so, im trying to learn here and i dont know/remember from reading if this mod changes the cars street manners, but i think its safe to say you dont want it shifting in traffic like you want it to at the track ...i totally understand worrying about missing a shift with a stock setup ..ive had a b&m pro ratchet sitting in my garage for over three years and finally installed it just recently and found out the only real question was "why did i wait so (bleepin') long?"...as some one whos gone from a tree mount to a good shifter, i think this advice is valid ...get a decent shifter and tach and have some fun rowin' through the gears as you semi-blaze down the quarter mile...ten and two is for grandma, fast though the old gal might be
one more thought...am i wrong in thinking that an automatic shifts automatically wether you tell it to or the govenor tells it to, thus, you'll still reep the rewards of the "faster shifting than you" shift kit?