gear/tire combo

Im running 3.23's with a 26" tire basically 16" t/a rims with et streets with a m6. Will this combo hurt my 60' but increase my trap or is this just a bad combo all togeather?

Im running 3.23's with a 26" tire basically 16" t/a rims with et streets with a m6. Will this combo hurt my 60' but increase my trap or is this just a bad combo all togeather?


From you sig I am assuming you have a M6 now...in that case the car will be a little lethargic with 3.23 gears....especially with a SR cam as most SR are running quite a bit of duration which moves the power band higher in the RPM range.

Choosing a gear/tire combination needs to take into account several variables:

Use of the car....street/strip, or all out drag, etc
RPM that you want to cross the traps...
Starting line traction.

If a car is being used primarily as a track car....I would reccomend 28" slicks on a 15" wheel as the extra sidewall helps absorb the initial shock to the tires and keep the car planted to the track. Then choose the gear ratio that will have you crossing the traps at your shift RPM/rev limit.

For a dual purpose street strip car you will need to make concessions in some areas to reduce your cruise RPM.

Now with all that being said.....I ran a T56/4.10/26"tire combo for many years.
Cruise RPM in 6th was liveable, and was trapping 120+ in 4th.

Thanks for the reply man, Just o clear things up. The 383SR combo is not in the car yet. Right now its astock bottome end motor with all the boltons and on the bottle. By all mean when I get the SR in there the gear will change to some 4.10-4.30's. But i was wondering with the combo i have now will it hurt?. Is it just going to be a dog off the line and then pick up hella mph after the 1/8th or what?. Im asking b/c i havent taken it to the track with it yet. Thanks

Thanks for the reply man, Just o clear things up. The 383SR combo is not in the car yet. Right now its astock bottome end motor with all the boltons and on the bottle. By all mean when I get the SR in there the gear will change to some 4.10-4.30's. But i was wondering with the combo i have now will it hurt?. Is it just going to be a dog off the line and then pick up hella mph after the 1/8th or what?. Im asking b/c i havent taken it to the track with it yet. Thanks

The 3.23's are going to hurt you every where...the reason is the motor will have to work harder to pull each gear.

Got ya, thats all i needed to know. I thought the added torque from the bottle would help out in that area.

it will help, but it is still not optimum.

Using a 10 speed bike for example.
The front sprocket is your rear gear and the back sprocket is the tranny gears. The 3.23 set is going to be the lasrge sprocket and the 4.10's are the little one.

It is much easier to accellerate on the small sprocket than the large one.

Well Ray I agree with your theory for racecars/ quick street/strip cars but for drivers I like running higher gear ratios (3.23-3.42's) for a couple reasons but from my experiences with LT1's and n2o is the make peak torque at 2500rpms stock and with the extra torque n2o gives it you run high gear ratios and still run quick maybe not optimal but within a few tenths of racecars, at least I always did. My car about 4yrs ago, stock gears (3.23's) car ran 12.50's@107mph N/A, Hotcam and boltons, 11.40's@119mph on 150HPn2o and when I went to 3.42's it picked up 1.5tenths on motor but almost none on n2o. There is also a guy on this board that run 11.90's@112mph with a bolton z28, (stock2.73 gears) 125-150 shot and it performs well. The thing is you will need good tires (Drag radials) and traction to be able to spray off the line for maximum advantage. JMO later Clint

Well Ray I agree with your theory for racecars/ quick street/strip cars but for drivers I like running higher gear ratios (3.23-3.42's) for a couple reasons but from my experiences with LT1's and n2o is the make peak torque at 2500rpms stock and with the extra torque n2o gives it you run high gear ratios and still run quick maybe not optimal but within a few tenths of racecars, at least I always did. My car about 4yrs ago, stock gears (3.23's) car ran 12.50's@107mph N/A, Hotcam and boltons, 11.40's@119mph on 150HPn2o and when I went to 3.42's it picked up 1.5tenths on motor but almost none on n2o. There is also a guy on this board that run 11.90's@112mph with a bolton z28, (stock2.73 gears) 125-150 shot and it performs well. The thing is you will need good tires (Drag radials) and traction to be able to spray off the line for maximum advantage. JMO later Clint

Thing is you have a torque converter to help out with your 60'. How does that translate to an m6 like me with these gears?. I think Ray was right in my case but other opinions are always welcome.

Well Ray I agree with your theory for racecars/ quick street/strip cars but for drivers I like running higher gear ratios (3.23-3.42's) for a couple reasons but from my experiences with LT1's and n2o is the make peak torque at 2500rpms stock and with the extra torque n2o gives it you run high gear ratios and still run quick maybe not optimal but within a few tenths of racecars, at least I always did. My car about 4yrs ago, stock gears (3.23's) car ran 12.50's@107mph N/A, Hotcam and boltons, 11.40's@119mph on 150HPn2o and when I went to 3.42's it picked up 1.5tenths on motor but almost none on n2o. There is also a guy on this board that run 11.90's@112mph with a bolton z28, (stock2.73 gears) 125-150 shot and it performs well. The thing is you will need good tires (Drag radials) and traction to be able to spray off the line for maximum advantage. JMO later Clint

I agree w/most of this...but 3.23's and a t56 is going to suck...no matter what the purpose.

The A4 has a 3.06 first gear compared to the 2.66 of the T56
and cruise speed would lug the motor
60mph in 6th would be ~1167rpm
70mph would only be ~1357rpm

The minimum for the T56 should be 3.42's.