In the WRXs and etc, what are the top speeds in each gear?

This has a spread sheet so you can figure out the speeds at any rpm you want.

http://www.oakos.com/wrx/gears.htm

Larry

my experience on stock wrx

1st 35mph
2nd 72mph
3rd 95mph
4th 132mph
5th dunno pegged the speedo

pegging it was done on a downward slopping road with wind at my back and 50 of my friends pushing the car down the interstate
:lol:

thx

toobad that 1-4 are so far apart ... my old car was

1 - 41
2- 58
3-81
4-115
5-145
6-165+

oh well... I hope there are new GEARS you can get ... I personally don't drive over 120, so the 136 top end is no good for me ... raise the gear ratio, give teh car some quicker ETs ... hmm.

Thanks for the info, very prompt!

chris

I just did a rear serious run last night and I was going to post the results, but then thought that would create a challenge for someone. We often post for others to benefit. Then that is what I'll do. It’s scary up there (high end of the Speedo) and not worth it to venture there. When you look at that Speedo at that high of levels, remember your looking at the Eyes of Death. In a blink of an eye Death will be in your lap.

After my run, I got no trophy, no metal, nothing of any value. Looking at the satisfaction index, that is null. I feel a little sick to my stomach right now, knowing that I jeopardize so much for so little.

Maybe this post is the most rewarding thing of all.

But for what it is worth. Its like a one night stand, after the fact, you look back and say that the few seconds of thrill and excitement isn’t worth the consequences. I could have splattered myself and my car all over the place. Take heed to this.

There are many more rewarding things to do in life. Taking care of yourself is one of them.

Go find the rest….

WRXzard

Good points. Sometimes we all forget that aerodynamic forces increase at the square of the speed. The forces that can cause you to loose control increase by 61% when you increase speed from 130 mph to 165 mph. At those speeds a 15 mph wind gust becomes a very big deal.

As the sargent in the old Hill Street Blues tv series used to say.

"Be careful out there!"

If you really want to do some high speed runs check out :

http://www.racefan.com/showsanction.asp?ID=418
http://www.scta-bni.org/


http://www.saltflats.com/


They will be glad to help you go as fast as you are capable of. I would love to see someone take a WRX and make a 200 mph club pass at Bonneville.

Larry

That would be something to see! It took the 928 test mule a lot of airo work to get there on a 6lt engine with close to 600flb. You would have to do some serious body mods to make it happen; cars are unstable at that speed as it is, let alone a rig without the streamlining for that class of racing.


SLR-

Yes you would probably need close to 600 hp to have any real expectation of hitting 200+ mph.


Larry

The thing I notice between the WRX and the WS6 is that, at around 120 mph in the WS6, my car got sucked to the ground, and it felt solid and handling was tight ... very fun, but topping it out was a hair raising experience, the first on only time I ever did it. After 100-120, I'm maxed, and really, I RARELY ever go that fast, something like once a year. But any how, I noticed the WRX does not feel as solid at high speeds, it actually feels like the car is being lifted up, not down ... not a good thing, so I urged my buddy to slow it down. The WRX felt like it needed some aerodynamic modding to make it more solid at high speed, but hey, that's just my take on the experience. I heard the MY04 wrxs are designed to not 'lift' at high speeds and that the new aerodynamics were designed by some of the rally car guys?!?! Not sure, just something I read in an article about the MY04.

chris

If your planning on spending any significant time at 140+ speeds the WRX needs a bit of aero work. It is not critical but there is some lift at high speed.

Luke at tire rack posted a while back about the effects of the prodrive aeropackage and in that post he listed that the stock WRX with no wing had about 130 lbs lift at 100 mph and with the stock wing it was nearly the same ( reduced total by 7 lbs) just changed the front rear balance a bit. ( actually increased front lift by 12.2 lbs, and reduced rear lift by 19.3).

If you look at the rear of the Corvettes and other GM performance cars like yours, you will see they have started to include some ground effects by putting a diffuser at the rear of the car. This in combination with the rear deck lid spoiler pulls the air out from under the car and gives some pretty good down force at very high speeds I suspect.

The simple fact is the WRX in rally form does not need much in the way of aerodynamics, since it does not get up into the 140+ mph range very often.

It is far more important in the WRC environment ot have balanced front / rear lift , and yaw control so when they take air on a jump the car remains level, maybe even a slight tendency to come up in the front to prevent nosing in following a jump, and it wants to fly straight.

Different needs for different uses.

If I was building an unlimited open road racer I would much rather start with the body on your WS6 than the 2002 WRX. The WRX really is not all that bad from a drag perspective, (it has slightly less drag then the pre 96 corvettes). The WRX has a CD of .33 or .32 depending on which source you reference, the pre 96 Vette had a .34 CD.

Small changes would make a world of difference. The most important from an aerodynamic view would be to get rid of that big fish mouth grill. That creates a lot of internal drag at high speed that we could do without. Change the arch of the rear of the roof and the rear glass angle to help keep flow attached onto the trunk, and lengthen the rear deck lid a couple inches.

Larry