I just found this thread which has not been posted in in a while.  The original AGP has torque.  A lot of torque.  The amount of torque that makes me laugh at many beamers which their owners think may be superior, but they aren't.  And the Mercs.  And those trashy Jap cr@p cars. Just encountered one today which I teased to oblivion.  LOL.  Assume the Autobahn, 6th gear, doing around 70 mph (112 kph) behind some git who thinks he has any speed.  He pulls over and I put the lead froot on Scorpi.  Within 10 secs I do 110 - 120 mph (184 - 200 kph).  Another 5 secs to 130 (220 kph).  There is somewhat left on a 155 bhp car but not much, and it is easy enough to get to 135 (228 kph) which is way beyond the max speed of 130 mph in the manual.  Hah, and there  is still something left. And that is in 6th gear.  Imagine I downshift to 5th.  I will find out how much there is left at some stage, but not here, in the UK. It's a shame we have all those fast cars and can't drive them because the general populace is too stupid to pay attention on the roads.  The cars are ready, some drivers are ready, others aren't, drinking coffee, talking on hand held mobiles, not indicating their intentions and hogging lanes.  MY AGP rocks, even without the SS kit, and I take the challenge to any car out there. If they are faster, so be it, if not, just get out of my way.

The AGP in any form (SS or no) is a fun car, let down simply by the gearbox.

If we didn't need to change just before 60 it would look so much better on paper

That is one thing I loved about my old "trashy jap cr@p cars", once in vtec they really did progress nicely.  My old Honda Prelude would redline just after 75mph in second gear

Unfortunately the AGP has ran out of puff at 55

It may well do more than 60 but by that point the car is completely outside of the power band.

Granted it might be a different story if you have a TMC but in standard form its somewhat lacking

When was it the best speed/rpm to change to 3rd??

I have always wondered this is it worth staying in 2nd grear to 60-62mph with the boost gone by then, or change to 3rd at 50 with a load of boost....

If it is for the 0-62 value, don't shift into 3rd.
2nd to rev limiter will be faster as the additional gear shift will take too much time (+ the time where the car needs to build the boost again).

I must have a different gearbox in my SS then as I can't get more than 52-54 before hitting the red line..

EDIT: Just realised, you've got a 500..  The gears on the 500 are better spaced and you can hit 60 in second, the AGP gearbox has an extra gear but it's not of any real use

Well, I would not mind having a 6th gear, as the 500 is reving quite high on the motorways.
But then the Punto gearboxes do seem to be a bit strange (ratios, gear changes, reliability).

All they seemed to do on the Punto was stick another gear into the mid-range somewhere..

70mph on the motorway you're still doing 3000rpm, 2500 would have been better, IMO!