I'm going to be swapping in an 8.8 with 3.90 gears. How do you think my highway pull will be affected? Those with gears, does your car run out of steam on the freeway?

I'm just curious, thanks.

 

mine picked up steam?...depending on ur previous gear u should pull faster from any mph..until extreme top end (100-110+)

 

With an M6 and 3.90's I can't imagine your car would ever feel like it ran out of steam. Especially on the highway. An A4 might start to at speeds around 120mph+. All I've ever heard is that cars with gears of that ratio just keep pulling like mad at higher speeds. It's not til really high speeds that they start to suffer.

 

Not true.

I ran a LS1 while I was down in Texas. We were dead end from a 40 to 100 punch. We want to try it again but going up to around 140. I had 373's he had 4.10's. I let him have the jump since I was slightly faster. Pretty close but when he shifted into fifth(I was still in fourth) I pull on him like a freight train. It's like he slamed on the brakes. We were both suprised. I had all the bolt on back then.

 

ummm, you said not true..yet you basically just proved it true with your scenario

 

He is trying to say that when the other guy with 4.10's had to shift into fifth, he stayed at the top of fourth and pulled on him like crazy... I imagine that 3.90's would be the best option for low and high speed since they are halfway between 3.73's and 4.10's. I just wanted to know how much you suffer shifting into higher gears earlier.

 

re-read it. The longer you can stay in fourth the better. as you get into 5th and 6th your pull want be as hard. I think the best all around gear would be 3.73's. As I stated 4.10's worked out great for the other guy untill he had to shift into fifth.

 

im not going to turn this into a pissing contest but we stated u will pull harder until extreme top end..u said not true, but then u stated how you wanted to run your buddy up to a higher mph, 140, so basically u restated everything we previously did

 

Since the overall gear ratio will be lower, every gear will produce more torque, but at the cost of a lower top speed. (you'll be shifting sooner)

 

That is exactly right. Rear gears do far less than you think after about 40 mph in a WOT race.

If you put in 3.90's, you get more TQ in each gear, but you have to shift our of each gear sooner. It averages out to be almost identical acceleration from about 40 mph+ no matter what rear gears you have.

The benefit to rear gears, if you can get traction, is the fast jump you get off the line in 1st.

Now, if you can increase your redline vs stock, gears are a clear winner because you get better TQ in each gear and you can run the speed out further in each gear due to the higher redline.

Dan