Hopping-up your street car to pull double-duty on the strip and curious if you should go with street gears or a Pro gear? It’s a common question among the sales and support team at US Gear, and while the answer isn’t always cut and dry, there’s a relatively simple formula to draw the line between the two.

In general, if your vehicle is a daily driver or driven extensively on the road, you’ll want to opt for street gears. Why? Because street gears from US Gear are made from a harder material, 8620 grade steel (and sometimes 4320 grade steel depending on the gear type). They also have a lower level of nickel content, which caters them to vehicles under 1,000 horsepower. Street gears from US Gear are a perfect upgrade for your fast street car, providing more efficiency and longer life than an OEM gear, and depending on the weight and power of the vehicle, are perfectly suited to drag strip use.

But if you’re exceeding 1,000 horsepower, or you’re splitting time between aggressive use at the strip and the roadway, a Competition gear, or Pro gear, is the better choice. Pro gears are made from a 9310 grade steel, which has a higher nickel content. The softer alloy is designed to flex and absorb shock loads of high torque, high impact drag racing. Due to their design, Pro gears would break down prematurely when used frequently on the street, leading to driveline failure.

Street gear sets are available for the following gear types:

Chrysler 8.7” IRS- Getrag H226 for 2010-2014 SRT8 Challenger/ Charger/ Magnum, Chrysler 8.75” (489), Dana 36 for 1984-1996 Corvette, Dana 44 for 1980-1982 Corvette, Dana 60 , Ford 8”, Ford 8.8” Ford Super 8.8” IRS Ford 9” GM 8.4” for 1963-1979 Corvette GM 8.6” for Gen 5 Camaro SS (V8 engine only) GM 10 Bolt and GM 12 Bolt Car 8.875”

Competition/Pro gear sets are available for the following gear types:

Dana 60 Pro, Ford 9” Pro (large and small pinion), Ford 9.5” Pro, Ford 10” Pro, and GM 12 Bolt Car Pro 8.875”