[RWDinWisconsin]

On a visit to New Glarus, WI today I spotted one of the new Subaru BRZ coupes in front of a restaurant, it caught my eye both for the fact that I had not seen one in person and the Illinois manufacture's plates. We took a walk around then went on our way. Later as we were getting ready to leave town the BRZ was parked on the side of the road and I stopped and chatted the two guys in it up. I figured they were looking at a map for a fun road to try out around town (many in the New Glarus area). Turns out the driver was Sam Smith, writing a piece for Car and Driver on the BRZ. I asked if they wanted to go on a quick run with me and they eagerly accepted. We had a blast ripping through the Wisconsin countryside for a while, and it was fun looking in the mirror watching someone keep up despite never seeing the road. Sam clearly showed car handling skills beyond mine and a little faith in the fact that I knew my way around some of the blind corners. I hope Sam gives the good beer he had stashed in the back seat time to settle before trying to open any. Anyway, that's the fun lead in to my technical question. Here comes the thechi part...

The car is a stock 335i with an automatic. I had it in sport mode and the tranny was performing great. After about 15 minutes or so, we made a turn onto a new road, I started to accelerate and then saw some cyclists and cow poop on the road. I didn't hit the brakes like I would be going into a corner on a track, just lifted the throttle to slow down. What happened next seemed odd to me, but maybe it is normal. The car stayed in the gear it was in (at about 5k rpm), for several seconds, without kicking into a higher gear. It was long enough that I slid the selector back into normal driving mode and it still didn't shift for another couple seconds. Eventually it did shift and everything seemed normal from there on out. Just seemed to hang out in that lower gear longer than I would have expected.

This was my first time really driving the car spiritedly since buying it, so I am just looking for some feedback on if this is normal behavior or not? Essentially does the car have a bit of a memory and was expecting me to continue to be spirited even though I was backing way off?

Thanks in advance for any commentary.

[jbass524]

I've had the car stik in manual mode after shifting down with a paddle to pass on the freeway. It would stay there in 3rd, 4th or 5th unless a I used the paddles to shift. It did this and things like this quite a few times. My SA and a lead mechanic at SF BMW said they had never heard of this and I trust them.

I never drove the car in sport mode.

[DosVerde]

I think that behaviour is normal, mine does it as well.

Great for rolling on and off the throttle through the twisties