Ive been meaning to ask this for a long while now.
What ratio final drive do you guys run? what are your power levels? what do you like?
for instance, i was talking to dan. he said at balcony he rarely uses third gear because his sr revs to 9k.
i would love that. my turbo ka runs out of power around 6k. which sucks. i have never dyno'd but ive been told that with my setup id have around 220hp and matching torque.
So stock for S chassis final drive is 4.08 IIRC. in order for me to have equal speed as Dan's SR at redline, my final drive ratio must decrease. something like 3.7
to my understanding, i will lose some torque -y-ness but gain higher top speed. if i were to increase it to 4.36, my powerband would narrow. (as if its not already, power is from 3k-6k ish)
as for tracks, im pretty much only at balcony and htm. really the only places i can go
I recomand 4.3...I've been talking to Frank from grage Boso(master tunner) and said that lower u make ur ratio...easyer for u to spin ur 18's plus easer to put it in third gear. In other words ur car feels faster,,,but loose top end speed but ur drifting so..
The thing about Dan's car is that it has 6 close ratio gears so it's a completely different setup. Cars with a 6 speed usually come factory with like a 3.5-3.9 because it has 6 gears and are closer together.
I recently switched to a 4.6 gear and love it. I had no problem at big tracks with my sr but I usually go to really small tracks and had problems switching to 2nd gear with the 17x9s in the rear. I switched the final drive and problem solved.
You have a ka so you might like the 4.4 better. People talk crap about it not being driveable on the street but it's BS. I had the 4.08 and it's only like 500 rpm higher at the same speed for the 4.6. I would understand if it was like 2k rpm higher.
i drove a 4.7 daily from sac to taho every day in my corolla for about a good 7 months till i sold it to buy a not so peasent car. lol..... no problems there and corola gearing fails. its short but its ok just keeps you slow on the highway and better bottom on the tracks. but franks right 4.3 is best on sr'ed s chassis.
4.3 it is. i had not even thought about dan's s15 has a 6spd. holy crap, 3.7 at 9k = freaking fast. my car doesnt see much street driving so thats not a factor.
hmm, so in areas of the track where i was already at/close to redline in 2nd gear (ie downhill left to uphill right at htm) i may have to upshift with the 4.3. this will definitely be interesting and fun.