Gear Ratio Change

[gramicci101]

Originally Posted by 7thgear

there is always power......
and it's all usable... even 1hp is usable power.

If it's good enough to get a horse up to speed, it's good enough for me.

Originally Posted by 7thgear

but the area under the curve between 6200 and 7200 is far greater than 5200 and 6200

It turns out that I didn't look at the X axis of your graph; I thought the major increments were 1000 RPM, not 400 RPM. I would like to amend my answer to 6400, not 5200.

Originally Posted by 7thgear

but if we had 4 gears for the same speed spans then we'd have better ability to mesh with the course.

Agreed, but putting all six gears in to cover the same range of speed effectively ruins the car for anything beyond that speed, which was my original point in response to the OP's question that I had quoted. We've kind of gotten off on a tangent.

Now, if I were building a trailered car purely to win in a certain class at a certain level, then yes, I would do that.

[7thgear]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

Agreed, but putting all six gears in to cover the same range of speed effectively ruins the car for anything beyond that speed, which was my original point in response to the OP's question that I had quoted. We've kind of gotten off on a tangent.

agreed, 6 speeds for a 80kph span would be overkill (unless, of course, it was somehow automated).

[Lunatic]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

Why would you want to use all six gears if you didn't need to? That's just more shifting that needs to be done, which means more time that needs to be taken to shift, which means less time putting power to the ground.

And your gear usage was just for that track you were on. Say you get a final drive ratio that lets you use all six gears on that track. What happens when you go to a faster track and you're topped out in sixth gear on a straight while people go around you?

For an extreme example, consider an autocross course. The runs are around a minute long, very tight and windy, and you're usually in second and occasionally third gear. If you geared your car to use all six gears on that course, you would constantly be shifting up or down, which would make you a lot slower than the person staying in second the entire time, and potentially upset the car in a corner. Now compare that to the back straight in Le Mans, where you can genuinely max out sixth gear before you hit the end of the straight. If your car is geared for the autocross course, you're only going to be going about 60-80 mph while other cars are passing you doing 150+.

I see your point.

[Lunatic]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

Except in an automatic it would be shifting constantly. You'd accelerate through a corner and it would drop a gear, then shift up a few seconds later, then drop again for the next corner, then back up, then up one more as you enter a small straight, then down two for the sharp corner at the end, etc... Plus autos shift in response to your actions, not in anticipation of your actions.

I would love a tightly geared sequential manual for autocross. You'd be able to set up for the next turn, not have the transmission react once you're in the turn. And you'd only have to worry about up or down, not fighting with shift gates. Or an aggressive CVT that would keep the car at 5.5K+ the whole time.

I would be driving in manual mode with the paddles. I am used to this having a track car with a 6 speed sequential gear box. To keep it in my torque range between 6 and 11,000 rpm one lap at ORP would be 100 shifts.

Good info, keep the suggestions coming. I am not trying to dispute anyone, just trying how to figure this out and learn the differences between my old track can and my new FRS.

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by Lunatic

I would be driving in manual mode with the paddles. I am used to this having a track car with a 6 speed sequential gear box. To keep it in my torque range between 6 and 11,000 rpm one lap at ORP would be 100 shifts.

Good info, keep the suggestions coming. I am not trying to dispute anyone, just trying how to figure this out and learn the differences between my old track can and my new FRS.

i still dont see how an auto frs would be something to upgrade from something with a sequential gearbox

[CSG David]

You'll need to identify how fast your courses are and where on the rev range you're in at each corner. This is something we can help you guys out on if you can send us data.

[Lunatic]

Originally Posted by fatoni

i still dont see how an auto frs would be something to upgrade from something with a sequential gearbox

It's not an upgrade, but something the wife can drive.

If you want to see my real track car look at


https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lunat...75620119162747