well each gear has a set amoun of torque, lower gears have more torque they can produce(not the gear them selves but the enrgy transfer) a bigger gear transfers less orque, so when you downshift you are getting more torque from that gear and you launch faster

get it? hence why no one would launch from 6gear because you cant get enough of a torque transfer from that gear

and if you are driving a nice v8 muscle car its funny as hell to toast idiots in imports in a lower gear

heh v8's aren't the only things that throw out torque

true but generally they do it a lot better for a lot less cost

of course, downshifting just makes it faster

Drive a manual car and find out

in a word, acceleration

i think they pretty much explained it but i will to for the hell of it

say ur cruising down the freeway at 65 mph in 5th gear in my car thats at about 3500 rpm, my car makes most of its power at higher rpms so downshifting to 4th gear will put me at about 4500 rpms or so where more power is available giving me better acceleration. Also ur top gear is usually an overdrive gear which is pretty big and designed to put u at the lowest rpm possible to still maintain speed and get good gas mileage. my car tho has a very close ratio gearbox and 5th gear at 80 mph is like 4000 rpms which isnt that great on gas mileage. my car really needs a 6 spd but thats a story for a diff day.

yeah i'd say it needs a 6speed alright

5th gear @ 3500rpm im going 79mph, lol.

and right there it's like oh man....

you can just feel it in the gas pedal the car just wants to go faster

lol 6spd, depending on the car, isnt that much different. its just closer ratios for the most part
6th gear @3k rpm for my stock sti is 70mph i dont remember what 80mph is
for me its the following for 2k rpms (which i try to stay around for daily driving)...
2nd @2k rpm 10mph shift to 3rd at 3k
3rd @ 2k rpm 20mph shift to 4th at 3k
4th @ 2k rpm 30mph shift to 5th at 3k
5th @ 2k rpm 40mph shift to 6th at ~ 3.5k
6th @ 2k rpm ~55mph
i have to rev a bit over 3k rpms or else i can barely accel in 6th gear =/