Powerglide gearing

BAE Hemi Superman supercharger 296 " dragster. Will a set of ATI 1.66 first gear work good. Had one before, made less HP, had a 176 gear with 389 rear gears and the thing was TOO brutal on the starting line. Need input soon. Thanks Don

 

1.69

I have a 125"wb rigid altered w/ 540 cu in supercharged BBC. It has run 7.03.
It has a 1.69 first gear and it works very well as long as you have some wheel speed at launch. I leave at 3000 rpm and that works. I haven't tried more rpms but I have had less and it isn't pretty....it tire shakes REAL BAD!
Steve

 

on a glide deal i think your better off changing the rear ratio to get your overall-first-gear ratio where you want/need it. the glides seem to work better with the 'common' ratios (more research and better materials in those).

as for the thing being brutal/violent... you're fighting more than just the gear ratio. glides/converters do a hell of a job multiplying the torque of a blown set-up so you can get away with a lot in the rear-end housing

imo... with a converter car you are better off 'knocking the legs out from under it' (at the launch) using the rear gear ratio and hopping the motor up to compensate at the launch. <--hope that reads the way i'm trying to explain it?

 

hey don we run a 285in. with a 526 kb brad deal with a 1.76 and a 4.30 gear but we never use a trans brake..our 60ft. are 88 to 92 the car leaves hard but no tire shake and it flys..call me if you want and I will tell you a little more neat things to do to your glide to make it live...we just changed out our clutches after 4 seasons..and kept them for spares..Dave
620-249-5909

 

obviously dave's been doing this awhile too and his hot rod runs very well... but in my opinion a converter driven set up in an altered is a different animal. i think the 'success window' is much smaller. i've been around 2 different converter driven altereds in recent years and aggressive gearing with a converter was not pretty at all. and in both of these cars 'flat-footing' at the launch ended up with a scenario where the engine 'flashes' the converter and the torque is so hi when it finally hits the tires that both cars were either off the ground, smoking the tires, shaking me to a nosebleed, or some combination of those.

i think the trick is a mild rear/first gear ratio and a pnuematic throttle controller

btw... i have a ton of respect for dave. so i'm not knocking his set up... clearly it's working for him. just saying what i have found in a solid f/c and/or altered set up.