Seeking advice/experience re gears
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1st Gear
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 1
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Seeking advice/experience re gears
Hi fellow Vette enthusiasts!
I am a NFG on this board - own a 2002 manual ragtop c5 completely stock. As purely a street ride I love it (no roll bar, no track), but find the gearing/topend wasteful for my purposes - 6th is practically useless. My goal is to gain acceleration/torque in the 0-100 mph range with minimum downside impact on maintenance, wear/tear, and daily driveability. Am considering swaping in a new/lower rear. Am thinking this will get me a pretty good bang for my buck in terms of 0-100 mph acceleration improvement and leaving the engine stock minimizes down the road complications.
Would welcome/appreciate any considerations, suggestions and/or performance and daily drivability experience regarding:
1) ring/pinion decision, i.e. 390 vs 410
2) simply replacing the ring/pinion vs buying a pre-configured/assembled differntial pkg (East Coast Corvette offers their DTE Stage-II which includes a hardened steel left side output shaft for $1,700 and a local shop has quoted me $1,650 to install)
Thanks in advance for any/all replies.
I am a NFG on this board - own a 2002 manual ragtop c5 completely stock. As purely a street ride I love it (no roll bar, no track), but find the gearing/topend wasteful for my purposes - 6th is practically useless. My goal is to gain acceleration/torque in the 0-100 mph range with minimum downside impact on maintenance, wear/tear, and daily driveability. Am considering swaping in a new/lower rear. Am thinking this will get me a pretty good bang for my buck in terms of 0-100 mph acceleration improvement and leaving the engine stock minimizes down the road complications.
Would welcome/appreciate any considerations, suggestions and/or performance and daily drivability experience regarding:
1) ring/pinion decision, i.e. 390 vs 410
2) simply replacing the ring/pinion vs buying a pre-configured/assembled differntial pkg (East Coast Corvette offers their DTE Stage-II which includes a hardened steel left side output shaft for $1,700 and a local shop has quoted me $1,650 to install)
Thanks in advance for any/all replies.
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From: Central Jersey
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Feel free to call us with any questions.. I would be happy to go over some options and pricing with you. We offer our gear poackage installed including parts and labor for $1,295.. 
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Home of the Fastest Supercharged C5 8.4 @ 158mph
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Home of the Fastest Supercharged C6 9.7 @ 143mph
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From: Central Jersey
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From: At the beach in little Rhody
Burning Brakes
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 929
Likes: 89
From: Bend Oregon
3:90s are my choice, I have friends with similar mods and 4:10s and I am consistlenty quicker in the 8th and quarter. I think for normal street use, the 4:10s are fun but a little harder to HOOK-UP (no traction, no speed) I drove the car for over 50k before selling it.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,195
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From: Tacoma WA
I ordered the Stage 1 DTE Differential from TByrne with 4.10:1 ratio for bout $1300 and installed for about $450 (i did a clutch install then too so actual install cost was about $900 but the quote before the clutch was just $450) It's the whole unit, and comes with everything you need... very complete package!!
I'm very happy with the 4.10 diff... it's a HUGE improvement!!! Why bother with 3.90s... if you have an M6, the 4.10s are perfect!
Dan
I'm very happy with the 4.10 diff... it's a HUGE improvement!!! Why bother with 3.90s... if you have an M6, the 4.10s are perfect!
Dan
