I am in the middle of putting everything together for my 1st gen beast but I am not sure what gearing to go with. I know 4.88s will get me the best times but will they be streetable. Or should I just go with 4.30s?

 

i dont think that 4.88 is good for steet use. ill recomend to use 4.38 or 4.44.

 

I for one have owned a car with .488s. At one point I had it with the stock tranny, later with a gsl-se box. You can daily drive a car with .488s without a problem. As long as you don't mind your car seeing 4,000 rpms+ in top gear at freeway speeds. If you do mostly in town driving, then its actually realy, realy nice. Its much easier to get the car going from a stop, on hills etc. They are also realy nice if you're running a aluminum flywheel on the street.

If you do mostly freeway running around, I'd stick with the stock gears. Maybe some .444s...but even those are pushing it. If you're 80% in town, I'd go with the .488s.

Awhile ago, I had a friend who did the .488s/aluminum flywheel in his Rx-3sp all at the same time. He said it was like throwing 50hp on the car. Night and day difference.

CJ

 

I have 4.44's and i couldnttell much of a difference after installation othre than the rpm's are much higher. If i could go back, i would have kept the stock gears(3.909) and went with a light steel flywheel. I think 4.88's would be horrible for the highway. I dont even like the fact that im at 4,500 at about 75 Mph.

 

solution: Run 4.88's and have your race tires (normal maybe 13's with 70 series tires... and then for around town, get some 17 or 18's with 70 series tires on them

 

Here is what I was thinking... Aluminum flywheel, dual-friction clutch and 4.88s. My question though with that is what would the likely top speed be with 250-75 hp? And what kind of diff. would I see between 4.30 (4.38- 4.44) and 4.88s in 1/4 mile and top speed.

While im on the topic. Do third gen wheels fit easily on a first gen?

But as pp13bnos said, yes I do about 80-90% in town driving with the occasional 350mile road trip to Vegas.

Any more thoughts would be great... thanks all!

 

I don’t have any exp with swapping out gears in a 1st gen... BUT I do have allot of exp with gearing and 4x4's... I would imagine with a set of 4.44 gears and some 205 60 15's on the *** end it would be close to to stock overall gearing...

 

i personally drove a J bridgeport daily with 5:13 gears! tire size was 225-50 15 BF Goodrich drag radials, man that car was fun!!! that setup got retired due to too many exhaust tickets...my turbo street car has 4:88 gears , no problems but i am running a 26" tall tire though... but turbo = quiet exhaust (no more exhaust tickets!)what engine setup are you planning on running??

 

No one's asked in this thread yet.... How does changing the gearing affect your speedometer?

Dan

 

like a murff. it is off by around 15-20 mph when running 4.88's...but they are definitely fun on the street, especially with an aluminum flywheel

 

I agree!!! 4.88 are great in town but with highway speed now in the 70mph range.....you will hate it on the highway!!!!

 

I am not sure wether I am going to go with a streetported 13b w/ webber side drafts with 250hp (I hope!), or a 13bt built to 300hp

It comes down to whatever is cheeper

 

Well, the 4.44:1 gears are a lot CHEAPER... you can get them from 4wd mazda pickups. And you don't really NEED the 4.88s with a 300 hp 13BT.

Brad

 

Also 300 hp with a stock block and hybrid turbo is pretty realistic... and probably a LOT cheaper than having someone build and tune a 250 hp NA.

Brad

 

What year what model pickups???

 

okay exactly what pick up so i can go junk yard shopping???

 

im curious too

 

As far as the speedo being thrown off, does anybody sell a new speedo gear to compensate?

Dan

 

go to your local highway patrol and tell them you want your speedometer re-calibrated, i think its free... they have to calibrate thier cars, and bikes to give us speeding tickets!!

 

4.88 would be useless in my opion unless you like redlining at 65-70 mph.

 

Just got the 4.88 gears but not sure if I wanna use them or not. Don't think I like the idea of the engine at higher RPM if it's not necessary.
Thanks guys, informative thread

 

Hmmm... sorry... I don't remember what pickups. That info is on Felix Miata's website. Here:

http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/interc...l#DIFFERENTIAL

Hope this helps!

Brad

 

dont mean to be rude,,,,, but its clear to me that you have never driven with 4.88 gears!!!! if you had , you wouldn't be saying that!!!


you could easily go 110 with a stock engine!!!ive done it!


until you drive a car with alot of gear , all i can say is your missing out!



p/s on my car that had 5.13 gears(also daily driven) the thing that freaked passengers out the most was when i started out from the light in 2nd gear!!!! took off like 1st gear used too(with the stock gears)

 

I have 4.44's on mine, and I love the the car drives both street and highway.

 

pm me if you don't want them. i'll take 'em.

and last i checked, the 4.88s were available at mazdaspeed motorsports(www.mazdausa.com) for $279.00....that's a lot cheaper than the Beat where they're right at $400~ish