Sport mode and paddle shifters?

there are many types of sport modes.

engine sport modes like those seen in expensive cars with a lot of changeable settings like BMWswill in some cases increase power output and sharpen throttle response.

gearbox sport mode can be a bit trickier. in regular automatics, sport mode is just like regularshifting except the program that decides when to shift is told to shift later up in RPMs despite lowerthrottle input.

when flooring it, automatics will shift at redline makingsport mode not really required when actually goin fast. onautomated manual gearboxes (gearboxes with a computercontrolled clutch like lamborghinis, or even as low asBMW m3s) sport mode will tell the computer to gothrough shifting at higher RPMs and increased shiftingspeed at the cost of extra brutality on gear shifts.

dual clutch gearboxes like the new ferrari gearboxes, VWDSG, porsche pdk, audi s-tronic and the nissan gt-r (thereare many more to list) have 2 clutches that allow theswitch between gears to be nearly instantaneous and insome cases can be lighter than regular automatedmanuals.

on your car you have sport mode like the first thing i mentioned. by shifting higher you have moreavailable hp making the car more responsive. this as you noticed will consume more gas.

manual mode is when you use some sort of input (gear selector with + and - positions, paddleshifters or in porsches, steering wheel mounted rockers) this lets the driver control when the carshifts. a smart driver that knows their car will be able to control when the car shifts by moving theaccelerator.

for the most part, if you drive in regular drive, and floor it quickly, your car will downshift(kickdown) and let you use all the engine power making sport mode not required.