I am just trying to figure out how a higher set of gears, say a 3.43 or 3.73, helps my car over the stock 3.08? By this i mean where am i going to notice the difference, on the highway or from the stop?? Also will it improve the quarter mile time etc etc...

I hope this is the right place to post this...

 

going to a numerically higher gear will increase your acceleration and help your 1/4 mile but you will turn higher rpm on the highway

 

So will i lose acceleration on the freeway compared to the 3.08s??

 

No you'll gain acelleration but your top speed wont be as high as it was before. You'll hit the redline at a lower speed.

Kat

 

Lets look at this picture, first at the bottom we'll look at the priciple of underdrive

On underdrive we have an underdriven gear, on your transmission, these are usually the 1, 2 and 3 gears. What occurs here is you have a larger gear driving a smaller one, this makes it so that the wheels are spinning at less than engine speed, however, lets say if your first gear is 3:1, that means that the output is 3 times slower, however, you're getting 3X more torque to drive those wheels, pretty simple and easy. Why you downshift when you don't have enough power like going up a hill or when you hit the gas from a roll.

Then overdrive, the drive gear is smaller then the driven. So it'll spin faster (like when you're in 5th at 80mph on the freeway) but you won't have as much torque (maybe .73:1)

Now when you go to choose gearing, you want ones that are within your means, by going with a gearing such as 3.73:1 over factory 3.23:1 gearing in your rear you'll increase accelleration by putting more power to the ground, however, in doing that you'll of course decrease gas mileage and lower your top end speed because instead of having your engine spin at 2000 rpms at 80 mph it'll be running 2700. By getting gears that are higher ratios your trying to make your engine work harder to get up to speeds, so for economy, gearing that is too high isn't good, but usually one or 2 steps up isn't too bad

 

Ever ride a ten speed bike?

The lower gears increase the torque multiplication. ie. 1st
But you peddle faster

The higher gears increase speed ie. 10th, but you pedel slower.

Your engine is doing the peddling.

simple enough??

 

I just noticed the drivetrain/transmision board
So i like how my car currnently can pull 100 at about 2700 rpms and 80 at about 2300-2400, how much will these numbers change with some 3.42s?

 

The main page of this site has a link so you can input gear ratios and get exact RPMs.

 

Your car probably has 2.73s or 3.23’s stock, unless it has the aussi rear and then it probably has 2.73s, 3.27’s or 3.45’s (5speed). Being an RS I’m betting on the 273’s.

As far as the rpm, if you had 3.08’s with 2350rpm being 80mph changing to 3.42’s will raise that to 2609

 

I know i do have 3.08s in the car now, stock for an l03 with a 5 speed