Mustang5L5
Fish Crazy
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
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- 341
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I laughed when I read 94mph in second gear, thats incredible.
It is pretty funny, but most guys here look down on the steep gearing most V8 cars have. It's mainly done for fuel economy as 1800RPM at 70MPH will get you 28MPG no matter how many cylinders you have.
However a common modification is to change the rear end gears in the axle to gear up slightly. Most of them comes with a 2.73 - 3.27 ratio. Guys like me throw those into the trash and put in gears like 3.73-4.56's. It won't let you wind out 2nd to 80MPH anymore, but you'll get unreal acceleration in each gear due to the gearing advantage and you can gain back some of the pull in the higher gears. If you think the pull is great with steep gearing, wait til you sit in a car with modified rear end gear ratio.
I have 4.10 gears in one of my Mustangs. Stock was 2.73. 1st gear now winds out to 15MPH, 2nd is 35ish, 3rd winds out to 75ish and 4th takes you to just over 100 and then a tall 5th for cruising. It kills your top end but i set this car up to be a stoplight terror. Ever gear has pull, no need to downshift at all. My other Mustang i left the factory 3.27's. I do a lot of highway traveling with it so i like doing 1800RPM at 70MPH.