Anyone considered re-gearing the manual, or maybe change rear-end ratio?

[5VBW Nick]

I know the 5V manual suffers from the same issue as the GT4 or Spyder from Porsche: the speeds for 1st and 2nd are crazy because the gears are so long. 58mph in 1st gear is nuts, and 83 in 2nd. I am sure this has been discussed, but I did some searches and came up with nothing somehow.

Is it pointless because of traction issues or what?

 

[Champale]

I had the same concern before I took delivery of mine. I hate foolishly tall (EPA) gearing and had installed shorter gears on another car (Evora 400) and have contemplated doing it to my GT350R. Once I got my 5BW and especially once I was able to rev it out fully, the gearing feels natural and right. You can have a TON of fun short shifting at 4500rpm. The tires would not be able to handle shorter gears, to be honest. You can spin the tires in 4th without too much effort.

 

[5VBW Nick]

I had the same concern before I took delivery of mine. I hate foolishly tall (EPA) gearing and had installed shorter gears on another car (Evora 400) and have contemplated doing it to my GT350R. Once I got my 5BW and especially once I was able to rev it out fully, the gearing feels natural and right. You can have a TON of fun short shifting at 4500rpm. The tires would not be able to handle shorter gears, to be honest. You can spin the tires in 4th without too much effort.

Lol at spinning in 4th, yikes! I also have a GT350R, and it has long gears because of the 8,250 redline. Time for AWD

How was the Evora? I test drive the Emira 2 years ago and cancelled my depositallocation I had in for well over a year.

 

[Champale]

The 5BW is an animal, torque from just off idle. On a sub 65 degree day with TC/ESC relaxed, wheelspin through first 3 gears all day long plus 4th sometimes.

Evora is such a special car. Steering and chassis feedback like nothing else this side of an Elise. Fast enough to be a ton of fun without being stupid and the gearing change, tune, and 3rd cat delete make it pretty fun to say the least. I don't drive it enough and sometimes think about getting rid of it but then I go for a drive and think "what the hell can I buy for even double it's value that is half this fun? And cool??"

 

[A Blackwing]

Shorter gearing would not work as mentioned due to the amount of power the has, and i agree with champale, once you drive it, they just feel right.

 

[99sport]

As everyone else has said, you can barely get the power down in first now. Maybe if you want to daily drag slicks a shorter 1st might work. Otherwise you'll just make more tire smoke

 

[vagabond]

More bang bang no lift without felony speeds would sure be fun though.

 

[DCV]

I hated 6th gear in my two GT350s and never used it. I looked into getting that changed out but it was pricey indeed.

 

[thefleshrocket]

Changing gearing has a much bigger effect on the higher gears than the lower ones. Let's say 2nd gear is good for 80mph and you make the gearing 10% shorter. Now 2nd gear will be good for 72mph, which isn't a super drastic change. But if 6th gear is good for 230mph, it'll now top out at 207mph. 8mph difference in 2nd gear, a 23mph difference in 6th gear. And that difference comes into play across the entire range of the gear, not just at the top end, obviously. Point being that I don't think shorter rear gears will suddenly make the 5BW unusable in the lower gears.

I have been thinking about buying a C7 Z06, but read about how its gears are even longer than the 5BW. I found a thread where a guy with a C7 Z06 had swapped the gears for 4.10s and loved it. I have 4.10s in my 1994 Chevy wagon, and while 3000rpm at 90mph doesn't do any wonders for interstate fuel economy (it's around 13mpg at that speed), the immediacy of acceleration is worth the tradeoff.

With the 5BW, I think the bigger problem is how much longer 6th gear is than 5th. Shift from 5th to 6th at ~160mph and the huge drop in RPM really puts a damper on acceleration. I wonder if swapping to 4.10s would make a significant-enough improvement in top-gear acceleration, or if it would just get me up into fall-on-its-face gear sooner since 5th gear redline will be dropped into the 140s.

 

[CBH]

6th gear is all I feel is out of whack. Our 1st five gears and 3.73 rear end is identical to the ZL1 1LE, and I love them.

6th on the ZLE was actually too short. It barely changed RPMs at all. The BW has a ridiculous gap between 5th and 6th, and I don't even attempt to use it unless I'm on the tollway doing over 80.

Ideally 6th would be about half way between the ratio on the BW and ZLE.

Are there any aftermarket rear end gears available for this car ?

My 5th gen Camaro had 3.45 rear-end gears, and it was ridiculous. It was so overgeared it nearly ruined the car. I think Richmond put out a 4.10 for it, but the Camaro5 forums at the time reported that most people had them break very soon after installation. I sold it in 2012, so I never was able to see if anybody else solved it.

You can't really compare rear-end ratios between older cars and today because wheel size is so much bigger now. I bet its possible to put the entire wheel/tire from the old 14" wheels from decades ago through the middle of a modern 20" or 22" rim. Today's bigger wheels make the overall gearing that much taller.

 

[99sport]

Tremec has versions of the 6060 with different internal gearing. The taller geared versions (which is in the 5) have higher torque specs. Shorter gearing means higher internal loads. So while you could consider swapping cogs or the whole trans, but I suspect durability would suffer

 

[Champale]

6th on most factory Tremecs - TR6060, 3160, T56 - typically have the deep overdrive 6th so yeah there is a huge gap between 5th and 6th. On my GT350R and 5BW, I only find myself using 6th on long road trips when cruising at, ahem, elevated speeds. Never at 70mph.

Again, I have been pleasantly surprised with the gearing matching the characteristics of the LT4 a lot more than I would have anticipated. But if someone wants to install 4.11s or something, please do and report back! Or be a real hero and go 4.56!

 

[A Blackwing]

I find it nice to have a 6th gear just for cruising, anything over 50 can just set throw it in and forget its a manual.

It does suck topping out 5th and basically being done but for my use case of daily driving the car the trade off is worth it.

 

[rubberduck]

Hmm, I’m cruising my 5BW in 3rd when going 50mph, at 55 I’ll go to 4th.

 

[A Blackwing]

Hmm, I’m cruising my 5BW in 3rd when going 50mph, at 55 I’ll go to 4th.

Idk about your 5BW but mines not a 4 cylinder, it’s a 6.2 liter supercharged V8.

Now my winter beater Elantra N, lines right up with that

 

[rubberduck]

Idk about your 5BW but mines not a 4 cylinder, it’s a 6.2 liter supercharged V8.

Now my winter beater Elantra N, lines right up with that

I have not idea about an Elantra, but at 50mph my Jeep with 5.13s is in 5th gear and tops out at 85mph.

 

[Grainofsand]

If one we were to swap out the rear differential, I think you would need a tune so that the computers don't start tripping. The speed sensors would start tripping and you would get error codes.

 

[Grainofsand]

I swapped out the rear end in my other car which was an automatic, and it made the car feel so much more fun to drive.

 

[jbawden]

What is the rationale for you 6M folks not using 6th at light throttle, typical interstate speeds?

 

[bloominguez]

What is the rationale for you 6M folks not using 6th at light throttle, typical interstate speeds?

I'm not in that camp, but I can see both sides. Not an either/or question. I certainly do use 6th in that situation. But I also recognize the gearing and find myself using 5th at times when I'd more or less automatically be in 6th in other cars. Just depends on what the car needs.