I'm not sure if it's the same deal but I noticed that when I shifted to 3rd while in VTEC it didn't feel quite the same when shifting into other gears like say..... I launch off the line and hit VTEC in 1st and it's awesome, very nice power jump, shift to 2nd and there's still an awesome power pull, then I shift to 3rd and it's not the same feeling as 1st and 2nd, it still pulls but I can actually feel a drop in power when shifting into 3rd, and I haven't really noticed anything when shifting to 4th. Now I didn't notice the power drop as much if I shift to 3rd after going to like 9k in 2nd, but a typical 8k-8,400k into 3rd from 2nd I do notice a srop in power like it's not pulling into 3rd like it did into 1st and 2nd.