Long gearing?

[OldPhart]

Hi - I’ve been enjoying this discussion which I suppose is an important attribute of a forum along with being educational and informative. This is my first Mustang, so the comments about previous model gearing are new to me but interesting as well. This discussion reminds me of a previous one regarding Recaro seats - to get or not to get! Again it’s personal preference given our individual priorities, likes and dislikes. I’m an old guy now and don’t expect the young folks to have preferences similar to mine, but just appreciate that there is diversity among the Bullitt aficionados. Let me make a comment to perhaps mostly younger generation drivers that you don’t know how lucky you are to have the six speed trannys (not an auto tranny comparison reference) because the gearing choices in these new trannys is phenomenal. Back in the four speed muscle car era, the final drive ratio in fourth gear was always 1:1(my recollection) and the rear axle gearing ratio had a big impact. Now you can play around in several gears to accomplish what you want (passing another car or whatever) and still have decent milage cruising in 6th gear. I currently have a ‘65 GTO four speed with 3.55 axle ratio, close ratio tranny and Tri-Power. In 4th gear at 52 mph I am at 2500 rpm. At 65 mph it’s screaming. Redlines were also noticeably lower. My original new in ‘65 GTO had a wide ratio tranny, 3.23 axle ratio and a 4 barrel. Cruising speed was much more pleasant and I could get up to a little over 50 mph in first gear. I don’t even use 2nd gear in my current GTO. My personal preference is my original gearing but I was never into drag racing. Since I have the current one for nostalgic reasons and only put about 500 miles a year on it, the gearing is irrelevant and gas milage is never calculated - very different cars. Of course just like in the old days one can always change out the gears in the rear axle, but doing that today I imagine is an expensive undertaking and not as critical given the extra gears you can play with to meet the immediate need. I realize if you’re into drag racing that’s a different story, but I’m just speaking about regular driving and the occasional burst of youthful exuberance (yes, I have that occasionally too). My ‘92 Vette that I sold when buying the Bullitt was the LT1 engine (300 hp) with a six speed and at 60 to 62 mph I was only turning around 1200 rpm which equated to low 30s highway milage. We don’t buy these cars because we’re obsessed with milage although it’s psychologically nice to get good highway milage on a trip and still know you have thunder under the hood. Happy motoring... Bruce

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