Originally Posted by jmackinjersey
Why not put in an electric switch that moves a gear so you go from a really low gear setting to a high setting? This way you have both settings. The track car can benefit from this especially in the curves and straight ways.
It also sounds like the engine needs to be tuned a little better so you can get more power for your competitions or you don't give the car gas soon enough to pull you out of the curves.
How is it that you can take 20 NASCAR drivers, put them in 20 cars built Exactly the same (IROC) and get one winner instead of them all coming in at the same time? It's the driver!
First of all I drive a 6spd... Who in their right mind would run a SCCA sports car with an auto, unless you have a million $ F1 gearbox. The car is tuned perfectly with new chip and advanced timing for 100 octane and iridium plugs. Obviously you don't know that most road courses have a hairpin that leads into a straightaway. Hairpin being 90 to 130 degree turn. Trust me, I hit everyone of those at max speed that the car can handle without ending up in the run-off.
As far as throttle acceleration through the turns, I'm sure you don't even know that the LSD and ETC in the car electronically applies the opposing brake during power slides. Even if the ETC is turned off, it will still activate at a certain point. So, driving this car at it's ultimate extreme is a fine line. Do you even know what happens when you are trying to power slide through a corner and the ETC kicks in ? Well, it wants to send the car in a straight line. Not really good when you're planning on using the slide of the rear end to negotiate your arc thru a corner.
I think what you're missing is, on a 2000' straight away coming from a hairpin that will maybe let you slide through at 45mph you will never get a chance to use your 6th gear before you are diving back down into the next turn, because the car does not have the acceleration to reach a speed that you need 6th gear on 90 percent of the road courses here on the west coast. So, basically you use 2nd thru 5th on the whole track.
Now, with a 3.87:1 differential, you have now gained the use of 6th gear because your shifting point has been reduced by 13 percent. So now the car is running in it's power band in the higher gears on the types of tracks that I run.
As far as your driver comment, I won't even respond... NASCAR, TURN LEFT, TURN LEFT, TURN LEFT... Gee lots of fun!!!