So this past weekend I raced with the 60 series 5 Speed in the car. At my home track I only need to go down to 2nd gear one time, the shift up 3rd and the ensuing RPM drop was painful.

I normally run with the small bore group but this past weekend got thrown in with the medium bore sedans; all the other cars were BMW 2002s or 510s with either L18s or L20s. The front running cars are sporting between 175-200hp at the wheels and are 200-300lbs heavier.

It bucketed down rain for most of Friday and all of Saturday. Living in one of the driest deserts in the world most of us don't have rain tires. I run a Hoosier TD which while it has grooves in it they barely qualify as treaded. I along with lots of other drivers were treated to some interesting hydroplaning get moments. I went sailing under the start finish bridge at a 30 degree angle at about 75-80.

In the rain the gearbox didn't matter as even at 3000 RPMs in 3rd gear I could light up the rear tires. It did dry out for Friday timed practice and I managed to be 5th fastest. Because I knew it would be dry on Sunday I made no set up changes for Saturday's qualifying race (I really should have softened or disconnected the bars) Saturday's timed practice had me 7th on the grid but with a dry set up in the wet I fell back to 8th.

In the Sunday race I did my usual passing cars on the first few turns, I think I was up to 5th by turn 3 but then one of the front runners who'd spun off in the rain on Saturday overtook me (actually I waved him by). After that I had one of my best races ever; one of the 510s was struggling get his tires up to temp, plus the car had a locked diff so,he was having to take a very wide line on entry to the tight corners and so I was able to take a tighter line and just slide underneath him right before the apex of turn 9.

So for the next three laps I was able to hold off the 510 and the 2002 on his bumper. The place where I was worried about being dead meat because of the gearbox was turn 4 and even with the 2900 rpm drop between second and third the two cars behind me only gained about 1 1/2 car lengths before we start over the crest of turn 6 (4th gear 85 mph). Now the poor box has over 100k on it so the third gear synchro probably isn't the best and finally in my zeal to stay out front I missed the shift. The 510 got enough of run that I was not able to hold him off. I tried to get back by but to no avail, the driver later told me given my reputation for knowing the fast way round the course he was watching and changing his lines in the places I was leaving him (he ended up a full second a lap faster) On the second to last lap the 2002 got enough of a run to get along side me and I couldn't squeeze him wide heading up towards turn 6 and he just stayed in it as we headed over the crest. I only know one other idiot who passes on the outside in that spot (me) so I know how motivated he was. I tired one last time to get past with about 4 corners to go but it was a low percentage move so I thought the wiser of it.

So after all my my whining about the crummy ratios I turned my fastest lap ever by .6 and even though I got thrown in the deep end (had I been in the usual group I would have been 2nd overall but that group crashed a couple car in the rain). The jetting was also spot on so the car pulled 8000 RPMs in 4th which is 112mph. The box definitely could use a freshen up but I'll live with it till summer.

Fantastic blow by blow there Rally, can almost hear it as an announcers broadcast over the radio. Congrats on your P.B. too. How did it feel to run with the medium sedans? Extra pressure or anything?

What diff ratio are you running Tom?
Cheers
Dave

Ninno it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, it was a much bigger challenge than the small bore group. I've had some great one on one battles in the small bore group. There may have only been 12 runners on Sunday in the B Sedan group but 8 of those drive the cars well and of those 8, 6 of us are getting every last bit out of them. The top 4 cars are running 2:46 to 2:48 then one car stranded at 2:50 then another group of 4 running between 2:53 - 2:54. I managed a 2:54.322. After that the cars are running 3:10 range but in there defense they are in class where they are running full interior and mildly modded suspensions with near stock motors. In the small bore group the top 5 run 2:50 - 2:54 but in at least two cases those times are more car than driver.. The only down side as alluded to before is I ended up inadvertently coaching some of my competitors. The 3rd, 5th and 7th placed drivers followed me round at some point during the weekend and going faster because of it.

Dave I'm running a 4:38 diff, I was considering a 4:62 diff but it only nets 300rpms and that's not enough to pull 3rd gear off the tightest hairpin. Note I run a 20.6" tall tire. Additionally I don't like the way the trans sound in 5th gear. Not sure if it's an issue or not as I've always run a 4 speed, the car just seems to have a growl in 5th. At some point I'll crack open the case and put fresh bearings and syncros in it. There were at least 3 times I just stuffed it in gear.....ouch, granted in the 7 lap final I made 78 shifts. With the U/C 4 speed I made 4 more shifts per lap so one may offset the other.

So realistically even if the 60 series had a 1.7- 1.9 third gear it'd likely in shave a 2-3 tenths. Another 10-15whp would likely make it possible to run 5th or 6th.