Actually Brian, I think you've put into pictures what I've been kicking around in my head. Mind you this is total theory, and I am by no means an expert or even very experienced with this kind of thing.

Could one of the reasons the 178, 181 and 185 pulleys are performing so closely at the 1/4 track be shift points? As Brian mentioned, the 185 pulley reaches the supercharger's sweet spot sooner than the smaller pulleys.

Is it possible that the 185 hits that sweet spot so early in the rpm range that when the car shifts at redline, it is already past the sweet spot? Now I'm making these numbers up, so bear with me, this is just an example.

Let's say Brian's car hits the sweet spot at 4300 rpm. If he shifts at 6200 rpm, the car only drops down to about 4800 rpm after the shift, thus missing the sweet spot. Where the same car with a smaller pulley may hit their sweet spot around 5000 rpm, and thus they would hit it through every gear, instead of only in first gear.

Does that make sense?