6th is too tall even with the 3.55s. A properly spaced gear set will have closer ratios as you go up in gear, i.e., 5-6 should be closer than 1-2, etc. This helps to compensate for increased drag as the vehicle increases speed. The huge gap between 5-6 (1.00 to 0.70) is a blatant economy move. It should be something more like 0.85 for 6th. If I ever have to go into the gear box, I will install a shorter 6th.
In what application? For competition or everyday driving? If you never used 6th gear for either of those applications what would you lose?
Certainly on the track, but even in everyday driving. Just winding up through the gears, shifting at 3-4K, it feels natural, until you shift from 5-6...huge drop. Also, I find myself having to shift back and forth a lot between 5-6 when I'm driving on the highway in traffic. If 6th was shorter, I'd be able to keep it in 6th and more comfortably accelerate from 60 to 80 as needed.
5th should be a mild overdrive (like it is in most other 6 speeds...), something like 0.97:1. Just my 2 cents.
I do leave it in 5th quite a bit, but that puts it at 3500 at 80mph...and sometimes you need to touch 90+ (emergencies only!), which is 4000+. My preference is to try to keep the revs between 2-3K for regular driving. Just my preference. I do appreciate the excellent gas mileage that the 0.70 6th provides. I can get 32 mpg hwy, and that is with the 3.55s.I tried driving a little in 5th only and it seem to get almost 27 mpg and was pretty responsive. Is there any reason you couldn’t just leave it in 5th in congested highway driving and then pop it up 6 if nothing’s going on?
This threads been very informative, I think I’m going to just leave my 3.31 gears alone. The car could be a little more perky off the line but I never realized that shorter (taller?) gears could hurt my 0 to 60 by nessesitating an extra shit. More fuel efficient and better 0 to 60 seems like the best of both worlds. Except for the turbo lag
I usually don’t drive in sport because I don’t think throttle mapping (the equivalent of mashing the gas pedal correct?) is the answer to better performance..but I suppose it’s an option...
SVO MkII;2231721If you want to really experience "turbo lag" said:
Which is what 4th is in most manual cars...:doh:
So you would lose economy by never using 6th for street driving, which, as you noted, is the sole reason for the existence of 6th. What would you lose for competition driving if you never used 6th? Are you using your car for competitions requiring 140 mph top speed?
Again, it would be more comfortable to be able to put it into 6th and cruise around at 2500-3500.
What's crazy. is I can pull this around town and highway driving with the 5.0. It's insane how much better on fuel this V8 is.
I should probably post an update, FWIW. I have grown to appreciate the factory gear selections on my car. It's basically a 5 spd with a highway cruising gear. On the track, I never use 6th gear. Shorter tracks can be handled with 4th gear, and longer ones (Road America) with 5th. On the highway, I can get over 30 mpg cruising in 6th. It's also worth noting that I have not experienced any diff overheating on track, as is common with the V8 cars. I'm guessing this is due to much less power flowing through the diff as well as a slightly taller ratio than the V8 PP cars (3.73). After 20 mos/28K miles, very happy with the car.
Suspicion confirmed...
