I will be driving my 83 from Los Angeles to North Central Texas.
How will the short 5th gear affect the drive ??

I have driven it daily around SoCal roughly 250 miles a day, and it was OK, however on a long trip will it get on my nerves without having the overdrive.
How will my gas mileage be affected ??

Thanks
Don

 

i can drive for 5 hours 300 miles in my turbo and use 1 tank of gas at speeds of 65mph to 130mph. the same trip in my early na going the speed limit (65-75) used about the same amount of gas.

 

how deep your foot is into the pedal will affect mpg more than the gearing.

 

No sweat you'll be comfortable on that long trip between 65 to 80 mph in fifth,should also get decent gas mileage if the car is up to date tune up wise, don't forget to bring little things with you exp -dme relay-anti freeze & quart of oil just in case.Have a safe trip & enjoye.

 

mainly concerned about the quality of drive without an "overdrive"

 

I ran a 944 from central Texas to the coastline at 5600RPM for an hour straight. It was fine. Oil temp stayed steady as did coolant. Oil pressure read 4.9bar all the way. That was a nice running little engine. It never missed a beat. (83 N/A 8V).

The engine runs pretty smoothly at such a high RPM because the frequencies get high enough you don't feel them. That car was a short fifth as well. It's no V8 Merc though - or a 928 - you'll be ready to get out for a breather every time you stop to fill up. Have a nice trip to TX.!!!

 

I recently took my 1988 944 n/a (The '88 has the short 5th gear) on a weekend road trip up to New Hampshire from New Jersey. It is about a 6 hour trip and the car drove great. I got an average MPG of about 27MPG and was cruising at about 73 MPH with some short bursts up to 80-95 for passing people. (I like the short 5th beacuse on the highway there is no need to downshift to pass most people) Also I still had a 1/4 of a tank left when I Got to NH and when I got home before fillups.

On the Tach I was Cruising at about 3500 RPM and the car was very smooth and not too loud. These cars are great cruisers. Also I never had any Temp problems (though I did see the gauge move a bit between lines 2 and 3 but that is normal). Also the oil pressure was steady.

 

I drove one of my Plymouth Superbirds from home in Cleveland to the fall Talladega race last year sans any kind of overdrive...your 944 should get you where you're going just fine!

 

Thanks for all the input