Driving a Pro Shifted T5 on the Street

Originally Posted by hepcat69

Could someone give me a better understanding of what a "face plated" transmission is and what the benefits are?

Heya!

I don't know if you know what the inside of a normal transmission looks like, but in order to 'face plate' or create 'face tooth engagement', they remove the synchronizers (friction surfaces that help match gear speeds to make shifting easy), and replace them with lugs and special sliders. Here's a picture:



That shows the system assembled, the picture below shows just how they modify the gears:



On the left is a stock gear, middle is a pro shifted gear (like mine), and on the right is the MUCH more durable and easier to drive face plated gear. Pro shifting and face plating provide the same benefit in high rpm shifting, however, the pro shifted gear gets the CRAP beat out of it in the process, wheras the face plated gear doesn't by anywhere near the same amount. The reason for this is the obvious increase in strength of the 'lugs', as well as the wider engagement window. They used to make the face plated design in a straight cut gear like the middle one, but rule changes in many of the racing classes that were using them required they be more like 'stock'. So they went to the stronger, quieter, but slightly more power robbing helical cut setup you see on the right.

Hope that helps!

Cris

Cool, but your a lot busier than my Verti Gate! Teach me how to post videos and I will show you! I stink at computer stuff.
I noted the one time you pushed it, you still used the clutch, so its not a clutchless set up!
Cool, whether your double clutching or stirring a V Gate, it freaking fun and thats the point having these cars. If I wanted AC and an easy shifting, braking car I would buy a new one. A car you have to drive - driver inputs - thats the fun part! Nice.

Originally Posted by Is1BadFord

Here's a small video I put together today showing what it's like to drive a pro shifted (no synchros) car around on the street. This was during 5pm traffic in Phoenix, AZ...so lots of stop and go. I never got over 40mph.



Yes, it's much like driving a 500ish horsepower dump truck, with 7000+ rpm on tap! Just kidding...sort of. The principles are the same...but in the car it's much, MUCH smoother than in a dumptruck lol.

Cris