The car ''sputters'' on hard acceleration, feels similar to hitting a ''rev limiter'', but nowhere near red-line. The car accelerates and cruises normally, and the tachometer does not bounce/jump when the car sputters. The car is the 2.0 turbo, gasoline four cylinder with a 5-speed manual transmission.

either run out of gear or hitting the rev limiter on the rpms

It can be a few things wrong here so the best thing for you and the safest for me to say is take it for a m.o.t even if you still have a long m.o.t. left not much money to pay to get this right

the Fuel Injection Pressure Damper can cose the same problim

could be your throttle postioning sensor. short terms TPS

sounds like 3rd gear/clutch is worn.I don't think a service will do any good.But if you remove the pan and find debris you know you will need a trans in the near future.

cat converter is going bad. have someone rev engine and feel for pressure at tailpipe. i am willing to bet its restricted. did you have the egr fail code? egr valves hardly ever go bad. a bad cat converter will not allow for normal aceleration, even with the pedal to the floor.

to funny, My car an 07 equinox with 52000 miles on it just today started sputtering. I googled equinox sputtering and I came up with this sight reporting the same exact problem-- help

Have you tested if this is repeatable using just cruise control?

There is a rev limiter in these cars that disallows over revving in park or neutral. Does it climb past 2700 under hard acceleration?

All Toyota auto trans cars downshift when descending a hill when you tap the brake. This is called "Downhill Shift Logic"; what this is for is to eliminate the double shift when you come to the bottom of a hill and then accelerate. Normal condition. Usually happens above 38 MPH.
Also: The cruise will accelerate when going uphill. Normal condition.Plus: The cruise will not disengage back to the set MPH after you top the hill. Toyota recommends to disengage the cruise when encountering steep terrain.