sup guys,

had an opportunity to take the car on a nice trip today...as i was driving i decided to see how much i get in each gear (kms wise) this is what i found..

1st.0-65 2nd.66-85 3rd. 86-155 4th.156-240 5th 240+

now..i assume i get the most out of first and lag 2nd because of my gears in my rear end? (3.45) and 4th because of the same..now all these gears were switched at the same rpm (5500) except for 4th>5 which was at 6000-6200..

my question is does anyone have the same or close to range in gears and is this a good range to be in if i would like to occasionally race..remember that i want to put in either a 406ci or an lt1 350 (made into a 383 stroker) and then put a 6 speed tranny with a 3.73 rear..??

thanks guys..

iroc2nv

 

A proper "call" on whether or not your rear gears/transmission gears are "right" for an engine cannot be made until you know the torque/hp curve for the engine in question. The idea for racing is to shift gears when engine is just at/over its HP maximum and not have the rpm drop fall below the torque peak (preferably somewhere between max torque and max hp). If you have large gear drops due to transmission- you would want a real screamer of an engine (i.e. a stroker capable of producing max HP at 6000rpm and max torque at somewhere in the ballpark of 3000-3200rpm). Once you are in the engine's "curve" the rear gears themselves are basically irrelevant as they are constant (i.e. always 3.42 or whatever) it is the transmission's changing gear ratios that are relevant.

From a generalized point of view- you would get the best gear positioning with a transmission with more and more gears with a consistent "stepping" up in gear ratios.

Also note- from a racing point of view- manual transmissions are entirely variable depending on the driver and not missing shifts or variances in clutch application- also, depending on the race type you are referring to- you may never see 4th or 5th gear (i.e. 1/8 or 1/4 mile).

Also- just to mention it- what is "optimum" for racing may not even be vaguely close to what is "optimum" for street use in respect to transmission and gear selection.