Oh I don't forget the tire. I'm switching to 30x9". That may allow me to move to a 3.55 gear unless the car runs too much speed, then I'll have to stick with 3.31. They also make that size tire in different compounds and in both a radial and bias, so lots of opportunity to choose the right tire for the current track/weather conditions.
Do the math -- 4.30 gear, 4.17 in the trans, a 28" tire which is only going to be about a 27.5" loaded diameter, being limited to 7700 RPM, that's only 35 MPH. Way too early. I think you'd agree that you don't want your car shifting before the 60', and that is exactly what you get when you throw gear at these things. I have the data, even at the TX mile where I don't use 1st gear and just roll into the throttle in 2nd gear I'm at 30 MPH after having traveled only 51 feet, so there's zero doubt I can hit that 35 in less than 60' at WOT using 1st gear.
The reality is that there are many good things about this trans, but the ratios are just absolutely horrid, it doesn't even have a 1:1 gear either. I used to think just like Casper, that I needed all that gear. 2 things happened. One, I saw that Jimmy Vaccaro was running really good using only a 3.31 and I was surprised at that, so I did the math and saw that allowed him to use only 3 gears. So two, I did a calibration for my car that made it leave in second gear. It slowed down less than a tenth vs a calibration using first gear testing them back to back on the same day. After I made the gear change to 3.31 the car started going down the track every time. Before that I could get one or maybe two good hits in before there just wasn't enough starting line left to hold it anymore. It just flat out made it a better car even if it did feel rather boring in comparison to when it had the 4.30 axle.
