5th gear ratios.

[TomEbbs]

Hey all.

Was out in my Mille in the sunshine today, generally I stick to back roads for fun driving however today it was dual carriage way. Had time to consider the gear ratios.

3000rpm I’m at 62mph.
3300rpm is about 70mph.

Both of these I’d describe as “on cam” and keen to accelerate when needed rather than being more of a cruise gear.

Is this standard 5th gear gearing? If this is standard. Feels like this desperately needs either a longer 5th for cruising or a 6speed box (unlikely)

Photo of the day to please the eyes.

 

[caprixpack]

Yeah this is the same for my millennium, I drove 300 miles today mostly at 3500rpm on the motorway.

 

[TomEbbs]

Yeah this is the same for my millennium, I drove 300 miles today mostly at 3500rpm on the motorway.

It’s wild. Fair enough.

 

[gingerdave]

Just wear earplugs

 

[st220kyle]

I have a fiesta mk5 zetec s which I have fitted a puma engine and gear box too,
When it had the 1.6 it was fine on motorways.
As soon as I fitted the 1.7 engine and box I was quite shocked at how much lower the gear ratios were, roughly an extra 500 rpm at about 75mph compared to the 1.6 unit,

Drove it all the way to Germany and back to Somerset like that as well

 

[MLC]

I suspect that the gear ratios were the same over all 1.7l models, probably the 1.4l and the racing puma were different.

We bought our first puma in 2001 when my wife fell for the newspaper adverts and stuck the advert on the fridge with the words "want one!".

The puma was a really special car, we swapped a 1.6 escort for the puma and the difference was incredible. I think that as well as the more powerful engine the gearing is set for performance rather than economy. That means it gets really noisy beyond legal road speeds, but clearly none of us would know that.

Two years later a new newspaper cutting appeared on the fridge with the same message, this time with an advert for an MB SLK

20 years later her main car is still an SLK, however we bought a silver Puma Thunder around 10 years ago before they started to get expensive. The car has never been used as a main car, however it is still great fun to drive.

Mark

 

[Jubei700]

Mines the same. It could definitely have benefited from a sixth gear, but I don't think it was ever envisaged to be a motorway cruiser.

 

[Cornishpuma]

Hey all.

Was out in my Mille in the sunshine today, generally I stick to back roads for fun driving however today it was dual carriage way. Had time to consider the gear ratios.

3000rpm I’m at 62mph.
3300rpm is about 70mph.

Both of these I’d describe as “on cam” and keen to accelerate when needed rather than being more of a cruise gear.

Is this standard 5th gear gearing? If this is standard. Feels like this desperately needs either a longer 5th for cruising or a 6speed box (unlikely)

Photo of the day to please the eyes.
View attachment 11530

Nice view...

 

[SimonhSmith]

The Puma 1.7 is fitted with an iB5 transaxle as fitted to the Fiesta but with different ratios / shorter Final Drive ratio (3.82 vs the standard 4.25) specifically to give it a more sporty response; it was known inside Ford as the close ratio iB5 and this derivative was made at the Bordeaux plant.Given the nature of the car these ratios were deemed more appropriate but certainly sacrifice cruising comfort somewhat.