The stock transmission was a close ratio 5 speed, which ends up doing about 4k rpm at 70mph. The only way I can explain this low gearing is 1) it was designed for towing (not likely in a rabbit) 2) it was designed to reduce the space between gearing, for faster accelleration 3) the gas engine is so torqless that it only has power a very high rpms (I think it is tuned for power between 4 and 5k.
I suspect a combination of 2 and 3. When I switch to the diesel engine, it can only rev to about 4.5k, and is most fuel efficient at 2k. The transmission designed to go with the diesel engine has much higher gearing -- more like 2,800rpm at 70mph in 5th gear. Of course this also has wider gaps between the gears, which is not as good with a diesel that has a narrower power band than a gas engine. So I suppose it depends somewhat one whether you are spending alot of time as sustained highway driving, or more around town driving. The VW NA diesel is actually only 55 HP... >I don't think that the transmission was optimized for fast acceleration, >that little 4 banger diesel with only about 85 Hp is only capable of so >much. The transmission is geared so low, that it doesn't take any effort >to start from a dead stop in 2nd gear if necessary. >Greg H. > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
