Originally Posted by Black SRT
I think I would have gone the other way with the gears. But mine is a daily driver and I would like to keep the gas mileage. Put something around 2.80's in there, it would be like a five speed with one more gear then. I'm sure some one has a gear calculator around here. I'd like to see 1st doing what your 2nd is doing and so on. Cruising at 70 mph at around 1,750 RPM's.
We have different purposes for our cars... Mine is for road course track use, not daily driver... I almost went with 4.0:1 but it would have killed my top end on the straights... A 2.80:1 would probably make your 5th & 6th gear virtually useless under 100 mph and if you use it as a daily driver, that doesn't make much sense... The gearing is good for daily driving 70 mph in 6th gear gives you somewhere in the range of 3,200 rpm (don't hold me to this)
With such low gearing you would be out of the optimum torque range of the motor unless you travel the autobahn too and from work... Not to mention, you would be having a hard time with your clutch starting out in first gear... Just my humble opinion...
The engine sings between 3,200 - 5,200 rpm. Throttle response seems to be at the optimum... I run technically challenging road courses with relatively short straights. So, torque and acceleration are very important to my success. A 45 mph to 120 mph pulling range is critical on these types of tracks...
I'm pretty happy with the current set-up of my car through the corners, but I do need that extra boost from a tight turn into the straightaway. The car just doesn't have the guts to take me from a tight turn at 45 mph to 120+mph thru the straightaway (1,800 feet) before I have to dive into the next turn... I'm sitting somewhere in the 110 mph range and being embarrassed by alot of little four banger cars that have alot more acceleration...
OH WELL ... I VENTED>>>