Video: Have you ever seen a 3.5 ratio gearbox?!
I still don't fully understand why it exists…
On my standard internet trawl of car content, I stumbled across a gearbox I'd never seen before. Those crazy cats in Japan have made a gearbox where they have replaced 5th gear with a gear that fits in between 3rd and 4th. This makes the gears very close together and I'm not sure if really improves the performance or not, but I'll let you decide from the video.
For an extra special treat, the driver is the drift king himself, Keiichi Tsuchiya and he is driving the legendary Toyota AE86.
Before the madness on track begins, there is a nice explanation (with English subtitles) of how the gearbox works.
If anyone can properly explain the benefits of this gearbox, please let me know in the comments.
Here is the full video for your viewing pleasure:
Have you ever seen this kind of gearbox before? Let me know in the comments!
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Comments (15)
The purpose of it is greater acceleration out of corners without sacrificing top speed, I believe
That’s pretty interesting! I guess the benefits of this is a shorter high end gear ratio so you can stay on the power.
Got to love Keiichi Tsuchiya! I wish I could explain the benefits of that gearbox but it is way about my level.
The mechanic explains in the video that the intention was to keep 4th as the top gear. With all other gears (1st - 3rd) having fixed positions the only gear they could swap out for the 3.5th gear was 5th, which they don't normally use anyway. This is for a Top Gear like show and they did this as a gimmick/challenge for their regularly participating pro drivers.
even if my work should allow me to explain that... It`s still beyond my level @_@