Quote:
Originally Posted by serialk11r
aardvarcus you're spoiled with a C60. I have C56. 3000rpm in 5th is only 55mph.
More gears is better yes, and I would love to see 7 speed manuals everywhere. However being more realistic, a 6 speed like the C60 is a pretty good compromise for a small 4 cylinder engine. The 6th gear is a proper cruising gear that lets you follow traffic without going too much over 3000rpm (where a lot of engines start to really decline a lot in efficiency at low load due to friction), and the first gear is nice and short for starting and such. You can tip the scales more in the economy direction by making the 6th taller (a 2ZZ powered small car can hit 160mph in 6th with some drag reduction) and spreading 1-5 a little more.
I would be extremely happy with a slightly destroked engine and a C60, it would leave some gas mileage on the table but it would be pleasant to drive and still do okay on the highway. Yea if you wanted maximum gas mileage you could spec a gearbox that lets you do 55mph with 1500rpm (assuming you have a motor that can pull this off, I doubt my 1ZZ can), 5th put you at like 1500rpm for 45mph, and have 4th place you right at like 1200rpm for 25mph, but the giant gear spacing would drive me nuts when shifting and having to downshift to 3rd to accelerate hard would be really weird.
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Yeah, my RPMs aren’t quite that high, but still pretty high especially on the interstate. Just as an FYI if you ever have to have your C56 worked on there is a factory Toyota 0.725:1 5th gear that is a direct replacement, definitely worth considering.
Oh, as far as the crazy downshifting goes, imagine pulling the car out of sixth and putting it into second. The peak power band on a 2ZZ engine is 6200-7800 RPM, which is 49-61 MPH in second, so if I need to pass someone doing 45 or less in the 55 and I only have a small window to pass it comes out of 6th and into 2nd.
The options for final drives in C60s are 3.941:1, 4.312:1, and 4.529:1 all US spec Celicas got the 4.529 from the factory. I would love to drop in the 3.941 gear set, my only concern is making it hard to take off in first. I have not yet found anyone making a lower first or a taller sixth for the C60.