![]() Years later, while road racing with NASA, I ran into the same issues. What I found is it’s hard to really know what gear ratios are inside differentials unless you take off the cover, start counting teeth and do some arithmetic. You can either disassemble the transmission and start counting gear teeth, or you can use a few formulas and start rotating things to determine what you really have inside.īack in high school, I was short on money, but had lots of time, so I spent my days in wrecking yards trying to find a replacement rear end for my El Camino with that elusive 4.11:1 posi-traction in it. When you score a good deal on a transmission from Craigslist, another racer, or have one built by a reputable source, like Synchrotech Transmissions, you really don’t know what gears or final drive are actually inside. The only difference is that the calculation for the correct gear is much more complex because the racetrack isn’t just a flat 1,320-foot straight line. For road racing, gear ratios are just as important as they are in drag racing. I learned quickly as a teenager that gear ratios had a certain balance, good and bad. 4.11:1 was a great gear for ripping off quick quarter mile times, but a horrible gear for fuel economy. Obviously, for a rear-wheel drive Chevrolet, 4.11:1 gears were referring to the final drive ratio. TIRE ASPECT RATIO CALCULATOR INSTALLI didn’t really know what 4.11 meant, but I knew I needed to score one and install it in the rear end of my El Camino. ![]() At only 16 years old, I didn’t know much about engineering or mechanical systems, but I did know this: if you wanted to go faster down the drag strip you needed a 4.11 gear ratio. ![]() bracket racing was a lot of fun and kept me off the streets foolishly goofing around with my car buddies. I grew up 30 minutes from Sonoma Raceway and every Wednesday night for $15 you could drag race down the quarter mile. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |