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Racing transmission?

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Location
Fort Worth
#1
This is another "I wonder if" scenarios. My FiST pulls hard in 1st and 2nd, but kinda falls flat after that. Seems to pull pretty good after 100mph, which seems lile a waste. Im wo dering if it was possible to change the gearing in the tranny, or even in the diff. Thoughts?
 


OP
S
Messages
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Location
Fort Worth
Thread Starter #2
Reason I was asking is that I watched the video of the R5. For a 300hp car to pull "like a blast from a McLaren," then thats the recipe to follow. Everyone says that theres no awd system for the FiST, but the WRCs and R5s have them so....there ya go. Maybe I dont know the real differences in the 2 cars, if not, please correct me.
 


rodmoe

5000 Post Club
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#3
You can have a custom cut set of gears I am sure if you have the money. But I think the reson it runs out of puff after 100 is the tiny turbo runs out of steam past say 4500 - 5000 rpm and only addressing that will help. But maybe there are other options I don't know about ..
 


OP
S
Messages
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Location
Fort Worth
Thread Starter #4
No it pulls hard after 100, because the rpms are high. I feel like the gears are way too tall.
And the computer. ..would it freak with different gears? I assume a tune would be in order.
 


OP
S
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Fort Worth
Thread Starter #5
Plus the sound of a good strong transmission is almost as good as a screaming turbo.
 


Chris G

Active member
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#7
I'm wondering if anyone will release a stronger gearset for this car down the road.
 


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Location
Toronto
#8
It is because your torque is falling. As a result your acceleration g's are also falling the higher you are in the rev range of each gear which means your rate of acceleration is less the higher you rev, compounded by losing torque multiplication in each higher gear.
Gearing will not make that feeling go away, it will just seem like you are going through the gears faster, and the car will be quicker, but the feeling of power falling off will remain because it is.
The only way to feel like it is pulling hard to redline is to tune it to make peak torque at redline, so you end up with flat torque across the rev range. You can do that with this car, but it will mean lowering torque down low to about 180wtq and keeping that flat to 6500. you would make the same peak of 220whp but with linear acceleration, reduced wheelspin issues, but would be slower if you were trying to go WOT at lower rpms.
the next way is a bigger turbo, that can make a higher level of torque at redline, and make the same flat curve so that horsepower (and as a result, acceleration g's) will climb in linear fashion to redline.
 


OP
S
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Fort Worth
Thread Starter #9
I need to just stop trying with this one and get an SHO lol....I just reeeally like my Fiesta.
 


Sourskittle

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Lakeland
#10
Ford pretty much shaves 130hp off the SHO in 1st and 2nd gear to save the trans/driveline, lol. So you'd be right back where you started. I've driven the loaded SHO and the police interceptor SHO ( an SHO with stripped interior basically ). Both entertaining cars, but they got boring fast. The SHO is one nice ass ride though for a daily. When you launch the SHO you can feel it. Its just chilling and creeping. Once 3rd gear is fully engaged, the car just buries the speedo. I'd love to ride in a SHO with the leash taken off in 1st and 2nd gear, but of course.... Ford turned the power down for a reason.
 


RAAMaudio

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#11
The last time I looked into custom gear sets, LSD, 5 to 6 spd conversion, ten units needed plus core trans axles, 6-8 months lead time, $8000 each, plus labor.

Take half of that and get a bigger turbo, problem solved:)
 


OP
S
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Fort Worth
Thread Starter #12
Thats alot. If I had that kinda change laying around, a Fiesta wouldnt be my vehicle of choice.
 


Messages
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71
Location
south portland
#13
On the flip side, having "that kinda change lying around" kinda makes the Fiesta a perfect ride.

The great value of the base car plus the wide range of aftermarket performance parts allow for a really great car at a very reasonable price.
 


Sourskittle

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#14
For the price of a fully optioned fiesta ST, some mods and an $8000 trans, you could prob buy an entire M-sport rally car, lol
 


rodmoe

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#15
Didn't someone check on a price of one of their sequential transmissions and it was mental spendy like over 20k$ ?? Could be wrong on that but they are up there..
 


OP
S
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Location
Fort Worth
Thread Starter #16
Oh jesus....I believe it though. It would be cool to have someone buy one and put all the streetcar luxuries in it.
 


Rhinopolis

Active member
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#17
I would rather have slightly taller gearing, and I wish that we had an option on our FiST like what we had on the Mx5 that I came out of. In Europe the Mx5 runs 3:73 gears, where in the U.S. we run 4:10. Same everything except for the ratio, and some of the guys who were adding superchargers and turbos would source European diffs and have them swapped, so that the car would be more "relaxed" with the 220 whp and up to 300 whp that people with FI were seeing.

1st gear is so ridiculously short in the FiST, and with a bigger turbo having taller gearing IMO wouldn't be a bad thing. Perhaps one day there might be an option like this?
 


Sourskittle

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#18
I would rather have slightly taller gearing, and I wish that we had an option on our FiST like what we had on the Mx5 that I came out of. In Europe the Mx5 runs 3:73 gears, where in the U.S. we run 4:10. Same everything except for the ratio, and some of the guys who were adding superchargers and turbos would source European diffs and have them swapped, so that the car would be more "relaxed" with the 220 whp and up to 300 whp that people with FI were seeing.

1st gear is so ridiculously short in the FiST, and with a bigger turbo having taller gearing IMO wouldn't be a bad thing. Perhaps one day there might be an option like this?
My 235/40/17 tires on stock rims made a HUGE difference in gearing. If you wanted to move the gearing just a bit, a taller tire will do it instantly.
 


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