Prince is running an auto now. He rowed several 11.xx passes though.

 

I've drove both and I'm with you guys, autos are the only way to go when racing.

 

The baddest thing I've heard around here is at our local track where they run some kind of formula cars, them things sound cool as heck when they shift those manuals. Their some kind of air shifter, all you hear pop,pop, pop, every time they hit the turns and downshift or upshift on the straights, no slippage with those shifts.

 

What if a guy has a gear vendor? Dont those things pep things up quite a bit? Ive been really considering one and I see that alot of other racers use them. Seems like an all around good deal for the true multipurpose guys. Better Fuel Economy, Better shifting points, higher top end, tow better. Whats to loose but a few grand?

 

tristan:

I don't know if I would spend the money on a "Gear Vendors" or not. I have read and heard from quite a few guys that had them that they are not as durable as you would think. When installed on trucks with ALOT of H.P. and torque (600+ or more) they don't seem to last very long.

Everything you said is right as far as their advantages, but you are looking at around $3,000.00+ for one and I don't know if that is worth it or not.

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John_P

 

Thanks John I guess maybe I should start a thread and see if any of the guys that drag/pull/daily drive have one on this site. That would be the easiest way to see if they hold up. Come to think of it I have only heard people talk about them and havnt seen many people running them.

 

I don't have a manual, so, I'm just wondering. Are the guys with manuals keeping the pedal floored when they shift? Do you loose boost no matter what?

 

I keep my throttle to the boards all the way. You do loose boost at every shift. Mine drops to about 20 PSI between shifts.

 

As soon as you push in the pedal you are removing the load from the engine which causes a boost loss. Just try and hit 50psi by revving it in idle, you'll see what I'm getting at.

 

So are any of you guys running blow off valves?

Would you loose boost between shifts if you were using a manual valve body on an automatic transmission?

And does anybody have links to air shifters? Those sound like fun.

 

tristan:

You are welcome buddy! Yeah, I would definitely do some more "research"
before laying out $3,000.00+ for a "Gear Vendors" Unit. And you are right, I personally don't see many of them at the many diesel rallies and shows I attend throughout the year either,......I mean guys actually running them in their daily driver trucks.

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Begle1:

You mentioned a "manual valve body" for an automatic transmission. The only company I know who has anything like that is "ATS Diesel Performance." My friends Dale and Jimmy Smith who are running a 2001 Dodge CTD Pro-Street Truck on the DHRA Circuit have the ATS "Stand Alone" Transmission in their truck and IMO it is a very trick unit! Through a laptop computer, they can control lock-up speed, shift point speeds and they are working on a modification to apparently also control line pressure. It is pretty neat to watch Jimmy connect his laptop between drag race runs and through the ATS control module be able to manipulate those parameters without having to drop the tranny pan and valve body. This unit does not connect to any of the trucks computers, but as I said above, is a "stand alone" computer module that totally and independently controls parameters within the tranny.

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John_P

 

For old skoolers like me (who are running 727 derivatives) more tranny goodies are available from the gasser market...

http://www.compperformancegroupstore...ct_Code=121700

 

I haven't had my hanshaker timed yet, but I guarantee you with my mods I'll run at least 12.5 sec 1/4. Shifting is always slower, but if your good at shifting and you have a race clutch that let's you start from 3rd you'll loose about 1 sec maybe a couple more tenths to that Automatic!

 

So if I go with an auto I'll run low 12s with 455 hp? LOL

 

I would think at least 12.3, 12.4. 500HP or more would deffinetly do it.