Many Viper owners have found the benefit of "Gearing Down" for better performance. A gear change will get your engine up in the power band quicker and apply more torque to the rear wheels. This makes your car feel faster without changing its HP. A gear change is by far your biggest performance gain for the dollar. For about $1200 you can make your car feel like its gained 50-70hp. Gearing down gives you quicker acceleration by allowing your existing HP to get to the rear wheels faster. Vipers were built with a high 3.07 gear, this was done to keep the Gas Guzzler tax down, This gear in combination with the 1-4 skip shift allows 20mpg during 6th gear cruising. The 3.07 gear may be good for mileage but it makes 5th and 6th gears hardly useable for passing acceleration. A lower gear makes 6th gear) more usable and makes the car a real performer in the lower gears. Lower gears give better off throttle braking as well.
So what gears should you use? The most popular it the 3.55 ratio, for the street and canyon driver this gear provides great seat of the pants acceleration. The Drag Race and Road racer like the 3.33 ratio. The 3.33 gear helps with taller drag race tires and still lets the car pull good mph in 4th gear. The road racers like it as it lets them really hang it out in high-speed corners without getting stuck shifting into a higher gear. For those who just like to burn rubber from stoplight to stoplight the 3.73 is very popular. Lower gearing does create more heat, so 12,000-mile fluid changes are recommended. 1992-2002 Vipers require a speedometer calibration box to correct the speedometer. 2003-2010 models do not.
All ring and pinion sets are not the same, most of our gears are manufactured in America and are shot-peened at the factory. They are designed for quiet operation and high torque. For those who road race, drag race or have very high hp engines we offer shot-peening (on the sets that are not pre shot-peened) and "REM" Super Finishing polishing to strengthen the gears and allow them to run cooler.
Thanks for the great information Dan.
I had the 3.55 ratio in my GTS and it was a big difference for sure.