all performance up shifts and down shifts will be sequenced in a manner to keep the engine close to maximum power demand obviously hill holding ability will be based upon respective torque and horsepower capacities and thus the ability of a given engine to meet requirements under any given set of conditions finally the strategies herein described are particularly suitable for mechanical transmissions with reduced ratios steps in upper gears referring now to fig7 a so called u201c climbing the ladder u201d transmission gear change approach is demonstrated in a gear shifting chart displaying engine rpm vs road speed whenever vehicle engine loads become high such as when a vehicle encounters significant hill climbing demands the road speed of the vehicle will tend to diminish if the driver remains in the same gear thus those skilled in the art will appreciate that it becomes necessary to downshift the gear ratios which in turn forces engine rpm to become higher with each successive downshift hence the expression u201c climbing the ladder u201d to the extent that the smaller ratio changes are associated with the upper gears 7 12 the gear shift strategy of this invention provides a simulated performance of a continuously variable transmission whenever said transmission is operating in its upper gear ratios an optimal power gear shifting chart and associated gear shifting strategy map are presented in fig7 and 8 to reflect a gear shifting strategy that seeks to optimize the power demand sweet spot 54 as previously identified in.