Re: Is the six speed manual tranny better than the five speed on ga...

Chris D'Agnolo wrote:
> 
> The difference is, Mazda had an op****tunity to do it right
> with the 6 speed and just blew it.

At least in far-off Arstrilia, maybe the ratios were different on U.S.
market cars, according to 

http://www.miata.net/garage/KnowYourCar/S8_Gears.html

and according to mazdausa.com and the miata.net tire calculator, with
stock tires, overall revs per mile were:

     '99 5-speed '99 6-speed '03 6-speed '08 5-speed '08 6-speed

1st     11430       13070       11850       10770       13000

2nd      6880        7890        7150        6490        7700

3rd      4848        5720        5190        4570        5590

4th      3650        4370        3960        3440        4010

5th      2970        3480        3150        2800        3410

6th   that's not     2930        2660        whoa        2830 
      sixth gear,
     it's reverse!

See how, compared to my '99 5-speed, that Australian '03 had a bit more
grunt in 1st and 2nd to keep the stop-light experience OK, and also a
top gear where the engine turned 10% slower?  That sounds about perfect
to me.

If you could transplant an NB 3.909 rear end into an NC instead of the
stock 4.1 it would give you 2700 revs/mile in the 6-speed and 2670 in
the 5-speed, which might help that no-so-great EPA rating.  And for
acceleration you could just down****ft; red line in the 6-speed would be
75 / 3rd. 105 / 4th, 124 / 5th, and in the 5-speed 65 / 2nd, 92 / 3rd,
123 / 4th.  But I bet an NB differential wouldn't fit, or you'd have to
surgically reduce the driveshaft or something difficult like that.  You
could also adjust the revs per mile by putting 235/45/17s on an NC if
you didn't mind huge ugly wheels that weigh too much.

yrs jp