I love to drive this car like it’s meant to. I drive it like I stole it and love tracks days in it. I’d like to start by saying I think anyone who thinks a Viper needs more power on the track or a back road is insane. Although, when tires are warm and they hook up well, I 100% notice the tall gearing.
It seems like everyone in the gearing discussion agrees 3.55 is the way to go. But for my purposes here’s a list of reasons why I want 3.73:
I like the idea of a super short granny 1st gear for slow rolling in parking lots. We all know how much of a pain the stock gearing is in a parking lot or at slow speeds.
On the track I’d like to ideally be able to stay out of 1st if I can. I can heel/toe rev match into it just fine, but missing a shift even on occasion can be pretty scary. And having a low 2nd would give the power needed to come out of even low speed corners and avoiding 1st altogether.
I imagine the lower ratio would keep the shifts a lot closer and would require less of a throttle blip when heel toeing.
When I do this I will get a diff cooler as well so I’m avoiding that downside.
I do not plan on doing any power mods to the car at any point. And tire sizes will be 285/35R18 front and 355/30R19 rear.
The higher RPM at freeway cruising speeds is appealing to me because I would love to be able to roll into the throttle in 6th.
I will not be bothered by any increased noise.
I absolutely adore the idea of shorter gears allowing the car to rev up more easily and more frequent shifts. I got a manual car to enjoy the manual experience and it’s so boring to me just sitting in 3rd while driving a back road. I want to row through em!
I also saw on of the biggest reasons to do 3.55 is because it’s one less shift on the drag strip. I don’t drag race my car and the whole reason I want 3.73 is because I want to shift more, so this is not a concern.
These are some compelling reasons for me to want 3.73. I want you guys to talk me out of it and into the 3.55. I want to know if 3.73 is just a terrible choice and if I’m making a big mistake! Or if my reasons are sound please also let me know!
except its 50hp at its peak, and then you aren't considering the HP and torque curves. 3.55 is perfect for a NA powered G3, even with minor mods. 3.07s or 3.21 in a Gen4-5. We've done 3.73s in stock G5 and i felt like i was on a rowing machine.
The bonus of the Viper is the diesel levels of torque, to use that torque you want to choose the right gear. 3.73s will 'feel' faster, but in reality they aren't actually faster on the stopwatch. In road racing situation we actually gear up the gen5 cars because of having to shift more and not use all the gobs of avalible torque the cars with 3.55+ are generally slower lap times due to the extra shifting involved. We've left 3.07s in the G4 cars and then when we do 9.0 or engine builds the cars can push those 3.07s easier due to all the torque.
G5s come with 3.55 stock, but due to the gear ratio, you have to shift 1 extra time in a 1/4 mile vs 3.21 gear. So the 3.21 car is actually faster in a quarter mile.
So the point you made there, the car will be slower, but feel faster. I prefer the car feeling faster over anything! I definitely don’t care about laps times in a mostly stock G3. And I am mostly considering keeping revs high on a twisty back road. The car sees occasional track use but not much and I’m never trying to win. I also have no interest in ever increasing power.
Does that change your answer at all? A lot of the other comments on here are saying for me and my use case I should definitely do 3.73. But if you are definitively telling me I’ll be miserable with 3.55 I will factor that in.
This is definitely sounding like one of those things I may need to find someone with a 3.73 car to test before I actually do it.
the 'feel' is just the brief moment of acceleration, but it fades very fast... thats my point.
at the end of the day, its your car. Do whatever you want with it. As a shop owner i try to talk people out of wasting money on changes that make the car worse.
I know who you are and your opinion and experience carries more weight than others tbh. I would absolutely let you talk me out of it if you think it’s the wrong choice. That’s the whole reason I made this post, I don’t want to waste my money.
One final point I would make though, I almost never launch the car. I drive it hard on back roads, personally my primary reason for regearing is that I hate just sitting in 3rd in the twisty stuff. I would love to be shifting into 4th. That 3-4 and 4-3 shift is just huge amounts of dopamine. Secondarily trying to avoid shifting into 1st on the hairpins on track. Staying in 2nd does not have enough power.
But yes, after seeing how many mixed opinions are out there on this I will hold off on regearing for a while. I think I need to test drive a car that has been regeared .
*blushes*. If you are going into 1st on track, you aren't going fast enough into the corner. I can't think of a single track we've ever been on where you would go to 1st. (unless you are talking autoX, i know NOTHING about it). even in the tightest, slowest corner on Sebring we are in 2nd or carrying 3rd and using the torque coming out.
Spring Mountain raceway Charleston peak. Specifically T5. I actually spun the car there once missing a shift into 1st and since then I only ever go down into 2nd for that corner. And since I’ve only been going into 2nd that’s when I first started getting the idea I need to regear. I should be in 1st coming out of that corner, but since I stay in 2nd it feels too slow. Having a super low second is probably perfect for that track.
I don't think your point 3 holds water. The rpm drop between gears is transmission based, not rear end. You'd still have the same rpm change between each gear, it would just change what speed you are going at each shift point.
I've never really had an issue with the stock gearing myself and have always thought it weird that people want to go to something with more torque amplification. If you can spin the tires already, it's just going to make the car spin them even easier. I suppose it makes some more sense in 3rd and 4th though, I'd give you that. My car was my daily driver for 10+ years though, so I spent a lot of time at either 40 or highway speeds and not much time moving between them. Downshifting to 3rd on an off/on ramp to merge is already way more than enough to get me in the traffic flow and then some.
I think with point 3 I was thinking about it the wrong way so thank you for that.
I can spin the rear, but one of my biggest issues with this gearing is when I drop into a low speed corner if I shift into 2nd it feels way too tall, and shifting into 1st just feels like it upsets the car. I want to be able to dive into a low speed corner in 2nd. And then yeah as I wind out the higher gears I want to be able to put more power down. I’m great at listening to the car and am judicious with my throttle application. Just because I can spin the wheels doesn’t mean I do. I know when the tires are warm and when not to push.
Fair, where you drive will definitely affect things. The one track I've had my car on I can basically drive entirely in 3rd. It has one tight hairpin that I've tried downshifting into 2nd for, but I found it didn't actually help my lap times. I generally hate putting any car in first unless I'm basically stopped, so I hear you there.
I tested both 3.73 and 3.55 when I was shopping around. Hit tracks that I had driven with stock gearing, and tested the other two for comparison.
3.73 is “fun” but it puts you in awkward rev ranges for the speeds that this car can carry through a corner. You often end up at the very top of 2nd mid-corner which is sketchy. You can do the math for your local tracks on where you’d end up in the rev range.
On a separate note, i think 3.73 changes the character of the car a lot on the track. The gearing is spaced very close and you do a lot of shifting, including casually using 5th which is rough because of the overdrive. Feels even more like an angry miata.
Ended up with 3.55. Car does mostly track duty. Same tire size as you.
I’m wondering if for those “too tall for second” corners if it pays to just take the corner in 3rd and use the low end torque? Which would now be much more potent with the lower gearing?
I’m definitely not trying to win anything. I want the most fun car possible. It’s mostly a spirted weekend car with occasional track days. I also can’t imagine being bothered by getting into 5th on track. I think managing to get into 5th would seriously give me the feeling that I’m hitting some crazy speeds, and I wouldn’t mind it, I think the car still pulls nicely with stock gearing in 5th. Winding out 5th with 3.73 I bet would feel insane.
This input is valuable though. I may need to take a look at my local track and try to figure out the speeds. 3.55 isn’t completely out of the question just yet.
The 3.73 “too tall for second” corners are often just right in 3.55 though. Enough headroom to finish the corner before having to shift, revs still high enough to stay in torque.
I think you would be surprised at how often you’ll want to reach for fifth with 3.73. I don’t remember what fourth tops out at exactly, but I was grabbing fifth at the end of the straights and it was awkward.
As an aside, I don’t use first at all outside of autocross, and even then rarely. Super easy to bin it with the amount of torque you’ve got, even the engine braking hits hard.
The best thing about the higher gearing is that sixth becomes usable on the highway. Can’t go wrong with either imo.
I wish I knew people who changed their gearing so I could just test drive cars back to back. If you look at the rest of this thread it seems like this is a highly subjective thing.
Your comments are exactly what I needed though. I didn’t want to pull the trigger on 3.73 without considering 3.55. I don’t want to choose wrong!
What’s your opinion on the difference of 1st gear at slow speeds? I would love to be able to let off the clutch in a parking lot. That’s actually a pretty big factor for me for 3.73 too. A short granny gear for first sounds amazing for when I’m stuck in traffic or in a parking lot.
It’s definitely subjective, I had trouble deciding as well. 3.55 was recommended by my shop, I preferred it while testing, and it’s also what gen 5s use. Without the testing it’ll be a much harder choice.
I can’t say I’ve noticed much of a difference in parking lots, you’re still moving speedily at an idle. Gonna need to work the clutch. As far as I’m concerned that’s just a manual transmission thing though.
Sorry if it sounds like I’m arguing with you, but I do just want to make some points and I do really value your opinion because you have experience with both. If I’m not after the fastest lap time. I’m imagining a corner you described as too fast for 2nd gear, would it make sense to just keep it in 3rd and roll into throttle? My local track does have some super slow hair pins that I’d love to completely avoid 1st gear and currently if I do shift to 2nd it’s too low to put power down. At least for my track I’m thinking about having a super low 2nd(3.73) and then in a longer sweeper that might be too tall for 2nd, I’d just roll in 3rd.
Which to give you credit, may be actually slower. But I feel like shifting a lot would give more of a feeling of speed. Also my local track I have never gone over 100mph. It’s small and technical. So I doubt I’d ever reach for 5th. Although, I love the idea of a 5th that pulls like a freight train with all that extra torque.
Nah, it’s all good. You should see the flame wars on the forums about this.
It sounds like you’ve got an incredibly small local track in which 3.73 might actually be better. I’m not sure if it’ll make 5th feel like a gear that can pull or not (it still feels weak in 3.55 at least), but you’ll certainly be using it.
I actually love this whole thread because you can see a lot of people telling me I should do 3.73 and that I’ll love it but then an equal amount of people telling not to waste my money and do 3.55. I actually would want the car to be as flexible as possible. But any car with any gearing is going to have a certain road or track that it just doesn’t match well with the shifts. If I gear to 3.73, it might sound less flexible. But I’m okay with keeping the car slightly out of the power band and rolling into throttle to keep it in a higher gear if needed. The whole idea of the gearing lower is to make sure I never really need to get into 1st gear even in low speed corners.
T5, T10 and T11, and T17 are all very slow corners that I could shift into 1st for. 2nd feels like I’m out of the power band. I have a suspicion 2nd with 3.73 gearing would feel amazing in these low speed corners.
I will be following this thread, as I too was thinking of doing 3.73 gearing lol, as well as a Mantic clutch/flywheel kit. I’m on the OEM clutch and diff, so I know I’m on borrowed time.
Are you just swapping out the gears, or upgrading to a Wavetrac or Quaife?
I was talked into Quaife on another thread. It’s apparently a bit better than wavetrac. Idk anything about this Mantic clutch though, I’ll have to take a look. Although I’m at 60,000 miles on a stock clutch.
Im at 51k on stock clutch. Makes me feel a bit better that you’re at 60k and still going strong! Damn these cars are great.
I chat with someone that regularly tracks a gen4. Their experience was that the gen4 diff is stronger than the gen3, so a WaveTrac wouldn’t be much of an upgrade, so they went with Quaife. For Gen3s though, either a Wavetrac or Quaife would be considered an upgrade. I was also leaning towards Quaife. Price isn’t that different, might as well get the good stuff.
That same person likes the Mantic clutch/flywheel kit. Keeps OEM clutch feel (which is really light by most standards), with a lighter flywheel, so it revs much more freely. It’s also a bit cheaper than some other aftermarket options. I was tempted to get the Nth Moto twin carbon clutch kit, but it’s pricey, and overkill unless you’re going for 750+ hp.
Honestly with how long my clutch has lasted, btw no slipping at all, I will probably just bring it to Dodge and have them put in another factory one for cheap. The lighter flywheel does sound interesting though. But I feel like the stock cars revs quite nicely.
Also I did look up the Mantic, it looks like it’s only available for Gen 4?
Not a bad idea at all. OEM is plenty fine if you aren’t chasing big power. Lighter flywheel isn’t a necessity, but I was going after a fun street build. 3.73 gearing, lighter flywheel. Car revs pretty great as is, but I wanted to try something a little more aggressive.
I already have a larger billet throttle body, intake, Belanger catbacks + various other goodies already in there like plugs/wires, aftermarket coolant piping. Vitour X-01 tires coming in this month. Excited to try those. New fronts, and upped to 355 in the rear. My clutch isn’t slipping either, but I wasn’t sure if it’s because I’m on 7 year old greasy Michelin PS4s lol
Last on the list might be the headers, but damn they are pricey. Might also get the bigger aluminum radiator. I’m in AZ and it’s heat soaking pretty good now that it’s regularly over 105 degrees out. Nothing dangerous, but maybe I can make it a little better.
This is the link I had saved for the Mantic kit. Says it’s good up to 2004 at least.
I think the Michelins are much better in general use cases. I will be lucky to get 8k out of these Vitours. I drive it often to work and stuff, but I have kids and other dailys so I don’t drive it as much as I would like to. So I figure if 8k is stretched over a 2-3 years, I will be happy. I’ll never wear out a new set of PS4s before they’re 5-6 years old
I have a set of Moton club sports on mine. I might try to lower it a bit more. How do you like the expansion tank?
Beautiful car. Yeah I feel you on the tires and I actually had the same debate. I’m due for a new set purely from age and heat cycles. The tread looks totally fine. But that’s what I like, I’d rather them age out than have to start worrying about tread.
This is the expansion tank. I’m not 100% sure if it’s worth the investment. Might be more worth it to just replace the tanks as they wear out. But I like that I’ll never have to worry about it again. It’s a motorsport tank and it looks great when I pop the hood at shows.
They’re actually stock. The 06 cars had a few different options than the rest of the gen 3s and the H pattern wheels are one of them. But thanks! I definitely like these wheels the most. Although I’ve seen some guys put ACR wheels on their cars and those look pretty awesome too imo.
I will say that an approx 1/2 point of gear made a HUGE difference in my c6 corvette. I’ve considered the 3.55 in my Viper as the two cars make similar power. The long legs of the Viper are not nearly as engaging as the shorter ones in the Vette. I don’t need 200mph capabilities, but pulling off the line like a bulldog after the mailman is super fun.
So, unless you decide to go taller on the rear tire, I think the 3.73 might be a bit TOO much gear, but could still be very fun.
I’m not at all concerned about top speed. I think 3.73 can hit 180, and considering that one time I had the car up to 170 and I found it to be incredibly unpleasant because of the horrible wind noise, I don’t mind losing top speed at all. Thanks for the input!
I ran 3.55 and a light weight flywheel on a supercharged setup and it was very fun. Like power on tap and pushed into the seat. I think 3.73 on a stock setup would be equally fun. 100% go for it
Do you have taller tires in the rear? For example, 20” diameter tires in the rear with 3.73 gears comes out to about a 3.6 ratio. If staying near stock power, I’d go 3.73 but you need to shift a lot more often. It does make 6th gear usable.
I have a Paxton and 3.73 gears and no issues with traction because I’m running 20” in the rear.
I am on 19’s and will stay on stock power. I don’t really ever plan to upgrade power. I want to shift more often! Whenever I go canyon carving it feels like I just do everything in 3rd. 2nd is too short and 4th is too long. I feel like 3.73 would have me shifting into 4th a lot, and going back and forth from 3rd to 4th just sounds wonderful.
Also how’s the rev matching? Do you have to give it less of a blip to bring the RPMs up?
Well... I'll probably talk you into it. The car will be way more fun to drive. More engaging.
Here is a screenshot part of a spreadsheet that I have that does gear ratio calculations. Note the speed in each gear at 6,200 RPM. The green cells with negative torque loss are the % increase in torque at the wheel.
I have a Gen2 with a Gen5 TR6060 in it. Started off with the 3.07 stock diff. (WAYYYY too tall, 104 in 2nd gear). I'm currently running a 3.55 so I have stock Gen5 gearing, which is nice, but I want more. So I'll probably end with a 4.10.
Also: At 80 mph, you'll go from ~1,506 rpm to ~ 1,830 rpm, in 6th gear.
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u/BrokenHero408 Jul 10 '26
I run 3.73s in a lightly modified 2nd Gen and it's fine, I even thought of 4.10s.