My car had a little visit to Paul at Southern Axles in Watford this week, for some new rear gears.
My Camaro originally came with the economy 'highway' rear diff ratio of 2.56 which is great for economy and top speed, but lousy for acceleration and actual speed through the gearbox. As I had a 5 speed overdrive conversion done about 4 years ago, and the ear axle is about the only mechanical part of the car left untouched it was the last piece of the puzzle to sort out.
After lots of head scratching and online investigation using speed/rev calculators I settled on 3.42 as the best ratio for me. I didn't want to go any higher as I don't drag race the car and still want reasonable motorway rpm, and a decent (150mph+
) top speed ability.Picked up the car yesterday and on the brief drive home it was so much better, pulls cleaner from standstill, as it doesn't feel like taking off in 2nd as it was before, and the way it stayed on power through the gears is so much more more satisfying.... and of course it accelerates a bit quicker !!!
I've got to take it easy for a few miles to let them bed in, which will be a shame but should still be fun on Easter Monday for those comng out to play
. Hopefully next track day they'll really make the difference.I'd highly recommend Southern Axles, he specialises in yank motors as well as most Euro/Jap cars, and he also sorted my noisy Transit rear diff very fast last December too.
www.axle-services.com/
), but now only I can only get to 200mph... !