[TaintedStang]

I see threads all the time saying 3.73 or 4.10 gears and ever since I went too the track with Baker a couple months ago it's been confusing the hell out of me. When I went my car was just a mild bolt on 2 valve with 3.73 gears. I ran a total of eleven times that night. About five of those runs were on Bakers 28" slicks and the rest on my 26" 555r drag radials. My best time with the slicks was a 13.75@97mph with a 1.88 60ft and the best with my drag radials was a 13.80@97mph with a 1.90 60ft. Now here is my dilema. With the slicks I was able to go thru the traps at the top of third gear and the drag radials forced me into forth so thats a decent gain in gearing but why didn't the taller gearing affect me negatively if its so important? Now I know the difference in gearing between 3.27 and 4.10s is pretty important but some of these threads I see on here make 4.10s sound so superior over 3.73s but the difference in gearing I used at the track that night had to of been pretty close to say comparing my 3.73s to 3.55s right? Im not an expert so thats why im asking everyone here. Logically if the difference between 3.73s and 4.10s is so beneficial then why didn't the taller tires hurt my time or trap speed any? Btw my best trap speed for that night was 98mph. I know I could have had a better time than the 13.75 but my car was bogging pretty bad off the line with both set of tires. Thanks!

[0949er]

are you an auto?

[TaintedStang]

Sorry its a stick.

[BakerFX4]

dale... your first launch on the slicks was the best i think. That was the 13.75 wasnt it. Car took off pretty nice like. But yeah i think all the others bogged pretty much.

[01KnightRiderGT]

Should i get 3.73s 0r 4.10 on my car, please help!!!!

[0949er]

The end goal is to be going through the traps at the top of your gear.

Now, you said you are going through the traps in the top of 3rd. Tire diameter of the tire is a way to "fine tune" your car so that you can enter the traps at the correct speed. What you found out is that with your setup and 3.73s, it will take you a 28" tire to go through the traps at your maximum speed.

Now, for comparison I have 4.10s and with my regular street tire, I go though the traps at the top of 4th gear (115 mph). Now, if I wanted to increase my speed without running out of gear, I would increase my rear tire diameter. That would then enable me to continue using my 4.10s and to be able to go through the traps at higher speeds

[Myslowstang]

Originally Posted by 0949er The end goal is to be going through the traps at the top of your gear. Now, you said you are going through the traps in the top of 3rd. Tire diameter of the tire is a way to "fine tune" your car so that you can enter the traps at the correct speed. What you found out is that with your setup and 3.73s, it will take you a 28" tire to go through the traps at your maximum speed. Now, for comparison I have 4.10s and with my regular street tire, I go though the traps at the top of 4th gear (115 mph). Now, if I wanted to increase my speed without running out of gear, I would increase my rear tire diameter. That would then enable me to continue using my 4.10s and to be able to go through the traps at higher speeds

The taller tire didn't affect you negatively because the slicks are lighter then your DR's. Also the slicks hook better. It seems like your not quite at that power level with those gears to have a better atvantage with a 28" tire. Now if you were to run a 26" slick then you'll be faster and still have a little gear left with those gears

[TaintedStang]

Originally Posted by BakerFX4 dale... your first launch on the slicks was the best i think. That was the 13.75 wasnt it. Car took off pretty nice like. But yeah i think all the others bogged pretty much.

Yes your right on everything. First run was damn near perfect.

[TaintedStang]

Originally Posted by Myslowstang The taller tire didn't affect you negatively because the slicks are lighter then your DR's. Also the slicks hook better. It seems like your not quite at that power level with those gears to have a better atvantage with a 28" tire. Now if you were to run a 26" slick then you'll be faster and still have a little gear left with those gears

Im running a 100shot now so hopefully when I go back ill run a solid 12second time.

[Myslowstang]

Originally Posted by Dales03GT Im running a 100shot now so hopefully when I go back ill run a solid 12second time.

Oh... in that case a 28" would probably help you

[Myslowstang]

dale... I'm not sure what your asking. I thought you were asking why a taller tire didn't hurt your trap speed.

[tbirdscwd]

There are a lot of factors which affect choice of gearing and tire diameter on the drag strip. The fact that you make shit for power off the bottle means you want to get through each gear as fast as possible and maintain as high of an RPM as possible while doing so. That is why most drag guys go with 4.10s at least.

Provided traction off the line is the same and you have a decent driver behind the wheel, an N/A 2v 4.6 with 4.10s will be faster in the quarter that the same car with 3.73s, 3.55s, 3.27s, etc.....

With stock heads and cams, a manual 4.6 car needs to shift right at 5500rpm to yield best results.....but doing so brings you back pretty low in the rpm range (3,000-3,500 depending on which gear 2nd 3rd etc) where you don't make much power. The taller (or lower numerical number) rear end gear, the more time you will spend at these lower rpms until you get back into your peak power range.

[BakerFX4]

very well put tbird!

[TaintedStang]

Thats kinda the point I was trying make. With those taller tires shouldn't it have negatively affected my times since it was bringing my rpm's back too a lower point after each shift and make my launch worse since first gear was taller. Idk this crap confuses the hell out of me. Instead I was trapping identical speeds and almost the same times with both tires although their was a 2" difference in tire height. Tire weight and traction was making the biggest difference I guess. Although I was hooking pretty good with both tires.

[Myslowstang]

Originally Posted by Dales03GT Thats kinda the point I was trying make. With those taller tires shouldn't it have negatively affected my times since it was bringing my rpm's back too a lower point after each shift and make my launch worse since first gear was taller. Idk this crap confuses the hell out of me. Instead I was trapping identical speeds and almost the same times with both tires although their was a 2" difference in tire height. Tire weight and traction was making the biggest difference I guess. Although I was hooking pretty good with both tires.

don't forget about tire weight... slicks are lighter too

[tbirdscwd]

Thanks baker.

Dale, you can't just compare best run with the 26s to best run On the 28s with just one trip to the track. Try comparing your average trap speed with the two. This is one of the reasons why figuring out what a manual car sucks. It's so easy to be a tenth of a second off of a few shifts especially when they are coming at you faster with 3.73s or 4.10s on a stick car.

If you had a solid grasp of what your car should run and runs repeatedly, you would have something to go off of. But just to take a trip to the track, run a dozen times and compare best to best is not going to really show what your car wants/needs.

I say at your power level, a 26" slick is going to be your best bet. Keep up with the shifts and you will be happy enough. A 28" tire is leaving a lot on the table especially with 3.73s. It those had been 26" slicks, you might have scraped a few more 1.8s maybe even a 1.7 and would have been mid to low 13s

[TaintedStang]

Thanks tbird! That made alot of sense. My trap speeds were all in the 97 mph range except for one 98 and a couple low ones from screwing up on a run. Another question I have is why are my trap speeds so low? I see cars on here with similar mods breaking into the 100mph range but their times were slower.

[02gtmustang]

My first time out i ran a best of 13.6@98 in 100+ degree weather i went back out in 50-60 degree weather and shifted sooner and cut it down to a 13.4@101 im confused on why your bogging with nitto's i have wheel spin launching with my hoosier dr's and we same gearing and prolly the same mods.. If i hook off the line id prolly be doing low 13s

[tbirdscwd]

Like anything else, trap speed can fluctuate because of many things. Seeing as how your best run was a 13.75 @ 97 mph with a 1.8 60' tells me that either your shiftpoints are a bit off or that you need some work on shifting faster. A 1.8 60' is worth low 13s on these cars.

[sl04gt]

tbird is the man