PDA

View Full Version : whats gear box do the FAST cars use?



RobM
11-13-2004, 10:27 PM
im more curious than any thing but what gear box do the 200mph muscle cars use? do they use conventional over drive trannys? 4 speeds? or is there some sort of non over drive 5 or 6 speed out there? i know thers no right answer but what are some of the more proven set ups, what does big red use?

dennis68
11-13-2004, 10:51 PM
T56 for the most part. Winston Cup cars use a 4 speed box ($$$$$$), not your everyday Muncie. I think the old Trans-Am cars were using 5-speed Jerico's (again, big money).

spanky the wondermuffin
11-14-2004, 11:34 AM
not that i would take my own advice but if you really want to go that fast buy an ex-nascar short track car as your starting point.it is so much cheaper.if you are going to street drive a racing trans is out.i'm hard core but the noise of straight cut gears would be too much for even me,and i think it would get you pulled over too much,legal or not.also no syncros,are you ready to double clutch and rev match you way through a traffic jam?for chevy the new tko-600 with the .80 od is a good choice.or a t-56 with the modified 5-6 gears.the .89/.79 would be good.you need your od(s) close to your 4th.with a .74 od when you shift from 4 at,say, 6500 your revs will drop into the 4500 range(you'll lose speed while shifting),and that is just too low to pull the final drive ratio.i know this from repeated personal experiance.an m-22 combined with a quick-change rear end might be worth considering.try www.openroadracing.com the message board will produce answers from people who have gone 200 mph.

PeteRR
11-14-2004, 07:59 PM
im more curious than any thing but what gear box do the 200mph muscle cars use? do they use conventional over drive trannys? 4 speeds? or is there some sort of non over drive 5 or 6 speed out there? i know thers no right answer but what are some of the more proven set ups, what does big red use?

The I know 2 cars that run the Silver State Classic. One used a 3-speed Torqueflite, tall tires, and tall gears in a Ford 9 inch. He was running in the 170mph class. The other used a torqueflite also, but hooked to Gear Vendor OD transfer case. He was running in the 140mph class.

SDMAN
11-15-2004, 04:59 PM
Serious power and speeds require serious transmissions. Jerico and G-Force are the top dogs. The Jerico Winston Cup trans (4-speed) is available in a streetable setup (meaning it has an aluminim case option as well as a tailshaft that has a cable speedo hookup). And the G-Force T-56 6 speed with all the options would also make for a very strong street trans. Neither of these options could be called inexpensive.

Texas Hotrod
11-20-2004, 05:25 PM
To run that fast, it also relies on many factors. Good power, great strength, and efficiency in the combo.
A strong engine is pretty much straight forward.
A Ford 9" is stronger than your average axle but a Chevy 12bolt is known to transfer the power easier. Corvette IRS? It too should have less drag.
I haven't done much research on manual trannys, but I know that there are many different gear combos. Which ones hold up the best and have the least resistance? It is harder to spin a low set of (axle) gears (or push a car) when the power is coming out from an overdriven box than it is to drive the same car down the road (at fast speeds) with taller gears and a 1:1 trans gear.
It has beed proven that a drag car ran a slower time when the only change was a lower gear set. The car ran quicker and faster with taller gears and running through the lights in 4th gear, as opposed to lower gears and crossing the line in 5th. gear. Seems like Spanky was on the right track.
Do you run low gears and an o.d, or taller gears and a non (or lower ratio o.d.)? They both have a good side and a bad. Chevy or Dodge has a (truck?) 6spd. that uses a direct 5th gear and an over driven 6th, or maybe its a 6spd where 6th is direct. I can't remember what it was, I read it somewhere. I wasn't interested in the article so I didn't pay much attention to it.

What about weight? I pulled many Muncies easily w/o any assistance, they are very light compared to a beefy 5/6spd. I replaced a clutch in a 4.6 Mustang that had the Borg Warner 5spd and I can say that baby was big and heavy.

Gearvendor makes a direct/over, under/direct for Muncies and B.W.s. They claim to handle 900+ hp and can honestly turn a 4spd box into an 8spd. I actually threw around the idea to run a T-10 (lower 1st gear than the taller Muncie's) with a Gearvendor under/direct. I might be on the cautious side, but I would feel better with a slower-spinning drive shaft (than w/low gears) while flying down the track/highway.

Amsoil synthetic oils free up some power too. A better, slicker, more stable oil (actually chemicals, not oil) creates less rotating resistance, something else to keep in mind.
It's a hard choice, have to put some thought to it and figure out what would be best.
---TEX---

If money was no concern, I'd run a Hewland sequential way in the back.