Okay, this wacky idea popped into my head while driving today. I now have a 2.3L WBX with a lot more power in my '90 Westy with automatic. I could (but cannot possibly afford) go to a higher 3rd gear in the auto tranny, adds say it would drop the RPM at cruising speed by 800 RPM. And thus save some gas on long highway runs. But what if I did this? Go to larger tires on the rear? Why only the rear? To keep the speedometer and odometer accurate. Right now I am running 205/65 R 15 all around. If I were to go to a tire with larger circumference on the rear, although loosing a little power at the ground I should drop my RPMs at cruise. So, is there a fault in my logic? And would my gain be so small as to not be worth the effort? BTW, I haven't tried to do the math on this one yet, just thought I'd throw it out. |
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