McGirk94LT1

Gearing isn't designed with idea of people doing 83. Where is cruising at 83 legal again? You gotta be realistic here.

Besides, now at 83mph in a z51 you'll be a tick UNDER the rpms a base car's 6th gear are/will be. GS with the m12 gearset(is that what they are called still?) have great gears. Just enough added umph over base 6 speed gears but not gas guzzling.

If I had a choice of a non... Zxx model, a 2008 z51 would be my choice, between the lighter weight and z51 trans its gotta be a blast.

C7s

So at no time did the engineers explain the ratios of the new 7sp? I would love to hear from Chevy their explanation. I thought they may have at the bash, 60th ann, etc.

jschindler

Obviously a conspiracy theory to give people something to bitch about besides the Camaro tail lights. I'd rather have too many gears than not enough. If you don't like seventh, don't use it.

CarBoy

AMEN!! No more accidentally bumping into reverse when the lock out solenoid fails

4GS7

The 7th gear is for when you're crossing middle America at 75mph. The car will barely be idling. I approve.

All of you folks who think having a 5th gear 1:1 is great, it really isn't. I end up skipping gears a lot. I have that in my Mustang paired with 3.73s, and honestly, I wish I had less gear. Also, the ratios in the Tremec are naturally stepped. For me, 5th to 6th goes 1:1 to .65. That's a big drop. A set of 3.31s would do me nicely, but I don't want to crack open my pumpkin to do it.

Corvette Monkey

I think it'd be fun to have a lower first gear instead of a higher highway gear.

I'm not sure if the tires could take a lot more torque, but doing rolling digs up to a 30 or 35 mph speed limit and actually getting into the power band would be fun.

My C5 does 50+ in first gear (and I believe the C6/C7 do more), which means it's rare for me to even have a chance to hit the power band or do a 1-2 shift on my commute without being obnoxious and/or illegal.

theseal

The gearing is really nonsensical. 7 speeds. 1st gear will go 60. The car almost certainly tops out in 5th. It will finish the quarter in 3rd probably. Yet the car is still overreved cruising at 99-100, which is not speeding in many jurisdictions.

The base car should have at least grand sport gearing in the 1st 3, and if youre going to spin the extra 11 pounds all day long for a 7th gear, it ought to be a taller od.

RJ-92

Its not brand specific. Its corporate wide. Hence the C in CAFE.

4GS7

Is it opposite day?

1st Gear will go 60. Yes. That is correct.
The car will probably be aero limited with top speed in 5th. And then this is where you lose me.

99-100mph is DEFINITELY speeding in all jurisdictions. And in 7th, it'll be virtually idling, not overrevving.

7th IS a taller overdrive.

McGirk94LT1

WTF is this garbage?!? Have only a dozen or so people actually bothered to look at the trans ratios? Let alone *gasp* compare them to the current 6 speed? Its amazing what you'll discover if you do I promise.

New rule. If you havent bothered to look up/compare the ratios, dont bother posting in this transmission related threads...

ZL-1

When asked about the tall 7th gear on June 28th Tadge did mention that the LT1 has so much more torque and at such low rpm that the C7 is more responsive in 7th than a C6 is in 6th. Back in April at the Bash the torque was emphasized (more torque at 1000 rpm than some Porsches produce at ANY rpm ) The only statement about the choice of gearing that I can recall was that they found the current ratios to work very well with the LT1 and that it can handle the extra 7th gear because of its great torque.

Base C6s feel a bit sluggish with the 2.66 first compared with the C6 Z51 cars' 2.97 first. But a C6 Z06 with the same 2.66 first gear feels really strong! Because of all its torque it doesn't really need more gear than the 2.66. The C7 on takeoff has almost the same torque as a Z06 so it's very likely that it too will feel quite strong even without the more aggressive gearing.

I always wonder how the Z51 2.97 gearing is now sometimes referred to as "close ratio" when the overall ratio spread is obviously wider than the 2.66 trans. Why don't they call it a "wide ratio"? With the old Muncie 4-speeds, 2.20 first gear was close ratio and 2.56 was wide ratio.


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SCM_Crash

The gearing is based on the power band. If the motor didn't make so much power and torque over a wide power band, the gear ratios would be far closer. LSx and LTx motors make so much power and torque that it's completely unnecessary to make the gears shorter ratio.

No. This would be mathematically incorrect. The Z51 ratios are actually wider, not closer.

The distance between each gear up until 5th gear is actually further than the standard ratios. They seem like they're closer, however, because they're actually shorter gears (larger ratios). Meaning you can't be in them as long.

To give you an example of what I'm talking about:

Z51 Ratios (first 6 speeds)
2.97:1 <-31%-> 2.07:1 <-31%-> 1.43:1 <-30%-> 1.00:1 <-16%-> 0.84:1 <-33%-> 0.56:1

Non Z51 Ratios (first 6 speeds)
2.66:1 <-33%-> 1.78:1 <-27%-> 1.30:1 <-24%-> 1.00:1 <-26%-> 0.74:1 <-32%-> 0.50:1

As you can see, the only time the ratio is closer for the Z51 gearing is 1st to 2nd, but the distance isn't that different from the other ratio. However, you can see from 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th, the ratios for the non-Z51 are actually closer and the spread for the Z51 maintains about even and still wider.

JerriVette

The corvette team got the gear ratios correct on the c6 and just added 7th gear to improve fuel efficiency for the c7.

Rev matching is a cool new feature.

jschindler

I think it's pretty funny that a bunch of people, who not a single one of you have driven the car, are chastising GM for getting the gearing wrong. GM's engineers have actually driven the car.

travisnd

Not saying they got it wrong, just curious the rational behind the choices. Having 7 gears opens up the ability to build an aggressive road-course gearbox 2-5th and then get your awesome gas mileage in 6th and 7th.

The current Z51 gearing has 2nd too short to use at most tracks and the drop off in acceleration between 3rd and 4th is too much.

The base gearing allows the car to use 2nd in more areas as it's taller and the drop from 3rd to 4th is less so the car is in the power band when you enter 4th.

travisnd

See here....



The Z51 gearing is tailored to a drag race 1st-3rd then a big drop off to 4th. The standard gearing is more evenly spaced.

travisnd

C6 ZR1 gearing... car hits top speed in 6th. 5th and 6th are geared way differently than the base/Z51 stuff.

ZL-1

When I sell my base 1YY07 Stingray in a few years I'll advertise that it has the "close-ratio 7-speed trans"

Al77Vette

very nice. This is the gearing for manual.

Would you please show the gearing for the Auto?

Thanks

travisnd

Google image search... that's where I found the stuff above.