Quote:
Originally Posted by 5ABI VT
Im not a fan of steep gears myself. I have a little explanation that I tell people that Includes a Sumo wrestler vs Chuck Norris if anyone would like to hear it lol.
Trying to be as short as I can.. but to me gears are great if you are running 1/4 mile and 'quickness' means everything to you. If you can hook first gear, that steep ratio will help launch way harder and you will shave a noticeable amount off your e.t. For all other speeds besides launch gears are useless. The way I see it comparing 3rd gear with 4.09s and 2nd gear with stock gears is more relevant. Look at the speeds of those two final drives and you will see the multiplication difference and at the MPH that it occurs. People fail to take into consideration that yes gears multiply torque, but you are going slower in those gears. So 3rd feels faster.. but now you are only going the same speed as 2nd used to get to. SO really is your new faster 3rd much better than the old 2nd? that's how I see it.
Also the zf is a 5 speed + massive overdrive. reverse shares the same synchro as 6th so using 6th to accelerate  . Don't ask me how I know.
On my LT4 that spun 8k I dropped from 4.30 which was a waste of tires gear to 4.09. Which effectively made my trans a 3 speed (1-2 were useless) and went down to a 3.73. WIth the target troque being so high it effectively killed torque in the low range which was my goal and helped hook 1st gear on street tires. I also trapped 128 mph on low profile 19s at 44 psi on a road race suspension. Most races were well over in 4th anyways which was perfect since it topped out around 275 ish km/hr. Let the torque do the work which is what I like to say 
Theres a reason the c6 z06 went numerically lower with a final drive. Torque. let the torque do the work. The viper is another example. It has a numerically low gear ratio (1st gen anyways) why? because its a truck motor and it doesn't like to rev. give it less gear and let the torque do the work. Its no secret viper owners got brainwashed by all the gears bs and put 4.10s and went to the track and went slower. In my opinion its one of the biggest mistakes people make with high hp/torque cars and why some dyno queens just cant make the mph and times on the road. |
Curious, what PCM were you using on your 8000rpm LT4? Aftermarket? Stockers shut down after 7300-7400rpm.
The other reasons why the ZO6 and Viper went with a lower rear gear, was to be able to reach their top speeds with teh available transmissions.