i was going to get some bk and noticed my buddy was cruising the same way in his 6cyl s-10 extreme, this truck is pretty quick for a 6 cyl truck!
anyway we pulled up to the next stop light and on green, we went. i immediatly got the jump and held it, running my car to the smooth 7 thousand rpm before catching the next gear. all was well until 5th, it does not seem like much of a gear diff between 4th and 5th, once i got into 5th, he just passed with no problem. he told me later that once he hit overdrive it seemed like i just slowed down. my car was screeming at about 95-100mph and it seemed that i was quickly running out of gear. i was still accelerating but noy very fast. That sucks. but at least he now has a little more respect for my "1.2L of raw frury" HA HA

 

5th gear has a really long ratio that's why it stops accelerating like that.

 

So what should we do??? Something very similar happened to me, I was straight up dominating untill I hit 5th gear. Then I had absolutley no acceleration whatsoever.

 

nothing you can do really... thats at the point where the motor isnt making enough power to keep the car accelerating with that given gear ratio.

more power, or a slightly lower overdrive gear would do just fine.

 

4.44 diff.

 

4.7 and a miata 6speed

 

I was racing my buddies 92 Miata on the highway with my 83 GSL (in the sig), and I never even needed to downshift . He dropped his car into 4th and started to accelerate from around 65, so I just floored it and paced him. Once he went into 5th again, I just let off and stayed just a nose ahead of him . Then, when I got bored, I floored my car again and left him behind . I guess the point of this is just to say that Ive been on the other side of this problem before, lol. My car accelerates in 5th gear just as fast as my buddies stock 92 Miata does in 4th, lol. Although, I do know what youre talking about. Ive raced cars and stayed with them until 5th and then they just seem to "sail away", lol. The other thing that pisses me off is when Im racing V-8s from a roll on the road and they just have like twice the low RPM torque as me. They floor it and GO. I floor my car and wait for it to "wind up", lol. From a stop though, I can keep up with a lot of bigger engine cars (5 liter Mustang anyone? ).

~T.J.

PS - What were you doing at 95-100 MPH in 5th anyway!?!? I dont shift out of 4th when Im racing till over 100

 

Yeah, 5th is meant as a cruising gear basically... If you're shifting at 7 throughout the range, just push a BIT more out of your 4th... Take it right to the line before shifting up... they'll still sail away I guess, but it'll prolong the sail for a bit, and get you into fifth with a few more revs, which doesn't hurt.

Or here's an easier solution: Find a stretch of road that's shorter between "markers"... If you can beat him to the "finish" before you have to hit fifth, you're home free.

Jon

 

Funny how heavy vehicles with torquey engines do well at speed. I guess once the drag goes from being all weight (off the line) to almost all wind resistance (at high speed), the extra power and torque makes all the difference. I remember my aerodynamic as a house 73 F100 with a bore 40 over 360 would accel to over 100mph from 60mph very quickly> but it was a white knuckle experience.

 

Yes I agree, I have some mods on my truck now, and it goes from 60-120 in a blink of an eye.

 

I raced a Mid 90's BMW 325 vert yesterday. I had a very solid lead by about 6 car lengths intill his top end horsepower passed me at around 115-120 MPH.
HEld the lead for a solid mile.

With the straight pipe exhaust my car makes alot more power above 5500 RPM,s (sacrafice a few down low though. 5th Gear is no longer as menacing.