Tony installed my Stage 1 Gears Monday night at the Smokies. We returned from the Smokies Friday 08/29 and left for Orlando on Saturday 08/30 for Vacation in Orlando. We just returned from to Orlando Friday 09/05/03. The point being my experience with the gears thus far is likely incomplete. But since I seem to be one of the first with stage 1 gears I have been getting allot of questions. Therefore I thought I would post my impressions thus far. Let me start by saying everything for me is favorable to date and I enjoy driving the Kat more than ever.
Tuesday Smokies Day 1 - Cruising to the Biltmore - I first noticed that my Kat's transmission no longer hunted up and down liked it did before. I also noted under normal acceleration that under normal driving it really shifts out of first gear almost immediately. The gears do have more whine sound to them but for me it has not be offensive (and thus far Purple Lady has not commented on it) I kind of like the sound. Gear shift changes are much firmer and were most noticed when accelerating hard. Throttle response on the Interstate is much improved. To see what it is like drive your car at 70mph in 3rd gear. Jump on the throttle without down shifting and this is the kind of response you will get with the gears while running in 4th. We returned from the Biltmore with Laddie, Gordon and Scott. This was the first chance to really check out the gears. First we did a speedometer check. We all registered 68 mph so my speedometer was right on the money. Then we checked the RPM's. I was showing 2800 while the others were showing 2100-2200 RPM's. First Laddie and I jumped on it from around 65 mph. I pulled away from Laddie pretty hard, but learned later he did not push it all the way. Then Gordon pulled along side and we went at it 4 or 5 times really hard , a couple time going over a 100. Gordon and I ran side by side for awhile, but then I slowly would start pulling away from him. Once I had to come from behind. I compared my fuel usage to Gordon and Laddie as best we could and it seemed to be about the same amount of fuel used as registered on the gauge but that is likely not a true indication.
Wednesday Smokies Day 2 - Running Dragons Tail and Cherohala Skyway. We ran with the faster Kats this day on the Tail. My Kat would really pull strong exiting the curves. I did noticed that a few times I had to up shift to 3rd to avoid over revving. Afterward everyone I asked ( without gears) indicated they ran the whole Tail in 2nd gear. While making the initial climb up to the Skyway I noticed that other Kats were down shifting to 3rd on a number of the grades. Except for twice I stayed in 4th and had no trouble keeping up. We were just cruising and enjoying the scenery on this portion of the cruise. When we stopped for gas again my fuel consumption seemed to be matching everyone else's but I still have not really measured it..
Thursday Smokies Day 3 Nothing really to report didn't do much driving.
Fast forward to Saturday 09/06 - Drove to the SE Mopar meet in commerce GA. First time pulling the Prowler trailer (which was loaded down) Highway throttle response still excellent. Again the transmission does not hunt up and down at all. (previous to the gears the hunting occurred frequently) A couple time under hard but not full acceleration I chirped the tires, This has never happen before. Bob Geotz had asked me to watch the temperature while pulling the trailer but this was not a good test because it was a cooler than usual morning and it just stayed normal. I did noticed my oil pressure stayed higher while running in OD. In the past when it seemed to fall off in OD. My Borla's exhaust is somewhat louder but not offensive and remains pretty much at a constant level. Pulling the trailer prior to the gears, the exhaust note would get really loud when pulling hard in OD ( before it would downshift). The constant exhaust note with the gears never did get as loud as was the prvious hard pull volume . Bottom line again for me not offensive, and Purple Lady has not commented that it bothers her. I made this whole trip on a single tank of gas with fuel left over. As I recall this trip in the past required a stop for fuel before we could get home.
To date I have still not had a chance to compare hard acceleration from a standing start. I have yet to spin the tires in first, It does chirp shifting to second more than it did prior to the gears.
I can't wait until CTC to compare it against other Kats in the 1/4 mile.
I will report more after CTC.
So far the gears are awesome.
This message has been edited by BeWare on 09-10-2003 at 03:27 PM
