From: "John J. Stimson-III" <john@idsfa.net>
To: "Scot Zediker" <roadsterboy@earthlink.net>
Cc: "Loughmiller, Scott" <scott@radiate.com>; "'Mark J. Andy'"
<marka@telerama.com>; <ba-autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 9:59 PM
Subject: Re: 2500 lb Miata?
> Um, Scot, I don't want to get into a "yes you are/no I'm not" debate
> here, but the '99+ 5-speed cars have a longer gearing than the '94-97
> cars.
For starters, all 5-speed transmissions in every year of Miata use the same
gears. The only differences are in rearend gearing. '90-'93 cars use a
4.30 rearend, as do '99 and later 5-speed cars. '94-'97 cars use a 4.10
rearend. So, it's actually the '94-'97 models that have longer gearing.
> 5th in the '99+ 6-speed cars is about the same as 5th in the
> 94-97 cars. 5th in the 5-speed cars is slightly higher.
Basically, the 6-speed is slightly shorter at the low end, slightly taller
at the high end, and less gap between gears. Even with the much higher
rearend (3.909, IIRC), the overall gearing in 6th is not much higher than
5th in a 5-speed car. However, the 6-speed tops out at 54mph in 2nd (which
is the REALLY important thing for our purposes, yes?), whereas the 5-speed
with a 4.30 can carry 2nd to 58mph. And from what I've heard from a few
folks, this IS enough to make a difference.
> Maybe the 90-93 cars used a longer gearing the 94-97 cars, but it
> seems like you'd really be hurting in the acceleration department if
> that were the case.
They don't; see above. And with a 1.6L engine tuned for high-rpm power, I'm
kinda hurting on acceleration anyway :)
Scot
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