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It seems to me that so many people with high horsepower cars keep going for shorter gears as a way, I suppose, to accelerate faster. This is an area where I am less technically knowledgeable, but have some experience.
Higher ring and pinion gears help leverage less powerful motors. When you have the kind of power available with 20b motors (500-700+whp), you do not necessarily need higher gears. In fact going with lower ring and pinions will probably get you through the quarter quicker, though this depends a bit on the transmission. I think Carlos (CLR) runs a 3.73 ring and pinion, for example, and I can name a few others, if you give me a minute.
If you have the kind of hp and torque that these motors can produce and use the higher gears (4.1 and 4.33), you run into several issues. You get tremendous wheelspin that costs time and is hard to control and you also have to shift 3-4 times instead of twice. I think that's why the guys running in the 9's use taller gears.
I use the 3.90 rear gear, though for a different reason. I have the Quaife close ratio gear set and want more time in gears, plus, 5th gear is 1:1 instead of 0.8:1. Anyway, I just jumped in here and there may well be other reasons for considering the 4.33 gear.
Gordon
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