Quote:
Originally Posted by sidejam
Anyone else notice that in the last gear during the quarter mile, the car really feels a lot weaker??? I can't remember if this is third or fourth gear. Either way, after the last shift, the car seems to really run out of power.
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Torque delivered as a function of the previous gear for automatics:
2: 64.6%
3: 72.4%
4: 62.5%
Gearing alone will drop you by almost 38% when going to fourth. You get this drop at the same time drag begins to bite into your horsepower. What do you feel? On shift, you notice a 38% drop in acceleration, which will then continue to slide 20% (relative to the current gear, due to drag) to the trap.
This is the reality of a 260HP vehicle.
Contrast with a 420HP vehicle, such as a base Vette. It will hit the final trap in third. Not only will the gearing be almost 20% stronger than a SKY at the same point, but the engine will be delivering significantly more torque at the additional multiplicative gearing factor. And lastly, while drag will also increase over that final period, when factored as a percentage of power delivered, it will impact acceleration by less than 10%.