I guess I'm just used to the gearing from years of German cars. Hard to gear a car for the Autobahn without having long gearing. It's a common complaint of the GT4 too, but it never bothers me when I drive one. My M Coupe was at redline in fifth at 164 mph, one of my German colleagues commented that he'd had one over there and it had about a 90 mile range at vMax, so roughly twenty five minutes between fill ups.
I've never driven a GT4, or any Porsche, but somehow I feel like I wouldn't be complaining if that was the case!
I get the need for long gearing up top for other markets, that's valid, but sadly I do not have an Autobahn near me
In fact the highways around me (Minneapolis) are generally 55 mph to 60 mph speed limits. I never use 6th gear, it's basically a totally waste for me. But I have no problem even at those speeds with the punchiness in 3rd / 4th / and even 5th on the highway. Car feels good in that situation.
My problem is I do a lot of city streets, stop and go 30-40 mph driving, so really it's the first three gears that piss me off. For me it's not just about being "long" or "tall", it's also the spread. The gap between 1st and 2nd is so ridiculous. Take up in 1st is also not great. I like to drive smooth so I'm usually getting smoked off stop lights left and right by SUV's and minivans. But more than anything, it just doesn't feel sporty.
It's probably better or less noticeable on back roads but 95% of the time that's not what I'm doing.
yeah GTI guys are stuck with your ratios. I have a guy on Vortex with a 19 6MT R whose gonna get me the long coding for all the bytes in his Transmission module. I am hoping that our ECUs have the same bytes and the “profile” so to speak for the Golf R 6MT is available in my Alltrack’s ECU, so I can swap a Golf R trans in for the shorter gearing. 6th gear spins like 2600 RPM @ 65 mph in the R, where it’s like 2K flat in my Alltrack.
I follow a VW/Audi scrapyard in North Jersey that gets totaled Golf R’s stock and modded all day long. If I can verify that an R trans will swap into my Alltrack without issue, I’m gonna keep my eyes peeled for a rear-ended 6MT R that’s been modded.
Hoping to find the jackpot: a 6MT with Wavetrack and upgraded DMF already installed. If I find that I could probably scoop it for like 1.5K
That sounds like a cool project. I wish I had the time and resources to tackle something like that. Maybe you should just swap a whole R engine while you're at it!