[KingLT1]

Just wanted to share some information for those looking to maximize their A8 performance when doing a roll.

What I have always found annoying with the A8 is that when going from a Roll, you either leave it in Drive and let the trans skip shift on it's own (which is slow if roll racing), or you put the shifter in manual mode, select the gear you want to do a pull in, then floor it, and move the shifter back to Drive (so the computer takes over). That works fine when you are stock or mild bolt-on but can be hit or miss when you start making more power and the car accelerates much quicker in the lower gears.

After the Whipple build, I found that when doing a low roll from first or second, the trans would no longer shift consistently from 1st or 2nd gear when moving the shifter from manual to D. The engine pulls to quick through the RPM band to make the shifts on time. It would either be short shift or touch the limiter. So I knew there had to be a better way.


I was on FB reading some posts by Brett @ PrayPerformance about Manual Mode Roll tuning. Then it dawned on me that we can edit the TUTD tables that control Manual Mode. If you look at these tables, each gear is set the same mph at all tps % to a number that the ECU will never see before reaching the REV limiter. So this means you have to manually command the shift. That is ok, but we all know the computer does a better job with the shifts. So I started messing with these tables and was able to get my transmission to shift at commanded MPH in each gear without needing to move the shifter over to D.

Here are the benefits of doing this.

1) The ability to leave the gear selector in manual mode without worrying about moving the shifter back to D to let the computer shift.

2) Now you can modulate the throttle if the tires are spinning and the computer will not short shift. It will stay in the same gear until X mph is reached to command the shift.

3) No more forgetting to move the shifter back to D after doing a burnout and hitting the limiter after launch because you forgot to move the shifter back to D.

4) Much easier to dial in the shift points and get consistent shifts because you don't need to off set with a bunch of lead time in gears 1 & 2.

5) You still can enjoy manually shifting the car for spirited driving just like before, the only difference is once you reach commanded MPH the Trans will shift on it's own.

Below are pics of the Stock TUTD settings( Pic 1-3) vs My TUTD settings (pic 4-6) for reference.