Question about rear end gear ratio.
Thread Starter
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 565
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From: Somewhere Between Mild Insanity and Complete Psychosis
Question about rear end gear ratio. I have an A4 Corvette coupe with 2.73 rear gears. I know that switching to 3.42 or 3.73 gears would improve my off the line acceleration and low end grunt, but would changing ratios hurt my top end power? That is, would my acceleration from highway speed, around 70mph, up to 150mph be hurt, or would the new gears just lower the top speed limit of the car. I don't want to lose my top end power and acceleration, but I don't care about lowering the car's top speed. I think it's over 170 for stock or mildly modded a4 coupes. 150mph is enough for me.
Also, would it be ok to use the stock torque converter with 3.42 or 3.73 ???
Thanks in advance!
Also, would it be ok to use the stock torque converter with 3.42 or 3.73 ???
Thanks in advance!
11 Second Club
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 1,847
Likes: 1
From: Sandwich, IL
Play with this calculator a bit. Just use 98 fbody a4 and put in the gear and tire size. 10 minutes messing around with this calculator should answer all your questions. FYI you can also change the rpm redline if your car shifts above 6000 rpm's.
http://www.f-body.org/gears/
http://www.f-body.org/gears/
11 Second Club
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 1,847
Likes: 1
From: Sandwich, IL
Also remember that you never want to hit 4th gear at WoT so basically I look at where I top out in third as my max top speed. For my car with 3.23's that's 142. With 3.42's it would be 134 and 3.73's make it 123. Of course bigger tires and higher redline rpm can bring the MPH back up 
