Greetings all,
Im looking to get some opinions for R&P ratio selection from those that have or are currently using their car for dual purpose racing. Back story is that I recently sent my Staffs gearbox off to TRE to have some repairs made to the selector finger bores on the bearing carrier and my pinion gear was found to be in poor shape. I am contemplating changing from a 10:31 to a 9:31 and was curious if that has any implications if I make the financial mistake of road racing the car in the future .
I currently have a 15:36 (2.400) first gear putting top of first in the neighborhood of 60 MPH at the Honda rev limit; I imagine this is probably higher than most. The issue I have with the Staffs is that I dont think integral 1st gear input shafts were made for the 4 speed configuration of the gearbox. The 15:36 I currently have I lucked into getting from Lee Williams from a previous special build he had done. Essentially if I want a different 1st gear ratio I have to convince someone to make one for me.
I previously justified the gearing by saying I lose more time in a run for other mistakes than I would gain off the line or in the occasional slow corner. But looking at the bright side of things the pinion condition presents the perfect excuse for me to change to a 9:31 ratio to bring me back into normal range for autocross 1st gear (~55 MPH by my public school math). I have a selection of ~20 gear sets ranging from 17:34 (2.000) through 26:25 (0.962) to use for either application.
Any comments are appreciated.
Matt Boian
14 CM