Monique

If it was me.... Instead of regearing to /31 I would buy an exchange /31.

Damned Swiss... but you have a good banking system... unless you are an American citizen...

Bill Verburg

if you look at the comparison table that I posted above, you'll see that a /33 is taller in 3,4,5 than a /31 while being the same in 1,2, 6

and a /31 is taller in 1,2,3 than the RoW street /21 but the same in 4,5,6

optimum gearing depends on track layout, the shorter the box the higher the likely hood of having to shift at an awkward spot unless the gearing is designed for that particular track

alps

Agree that one size doesn't fit all but feedback on the /31 ratios seems generally positive. The /33 is a compromise developed to satisfy noise regs. in a small but important market for Porsche. My gut feel (because I haven't had a chance for back to back comparisons) is that 3, 4 and 5 should be shorter (higher ratio). There are many track corners where I wished for a shorter third but ended up in second instead. I usually don't use 6th even on very long straights (such as at Spa), a shorter fifth would help here too. So not looking to spend big $ yet but when the day comes - it will be either re-gear or /31 exchange.

dtm407

i have a little experience in this area. i have 3 short geared transmissions-two for my track car and now one for my street/track car-hey, racing is expensive! . bill and steve's recommendations are spot on. what is good for the track is not necessarily good for the road. the slippery slope for me started for me when i purchased a used 993 for my daily driver-i had 2/3 of a 993 in parts at the race shop from my track car. after having only driven a track 993 with a short box, my first impression of a 993 with a stock box was- "where's the beef?". i just could not find a gear which felt comfortable and was constantly shifting between, 2nd, 3rd and 4th with unsatisfactory results each time-5th and 6th were totally useless. since i had a spare short box transmission lying around and the road 993 needed a new transmission, i tossed a RG50/Regear3-6-like (except 3rd is a hair taller and 4th is a hair shorter) transmission in and took it for a ride-ahhh! (i couldn't go back at this point) everyone at the race shop that test drove it came back with a smile on their face with this transmission, you can keep the rpm's in the power band easily. which leads to the question-which transmission? my other race transmission is geared like bill's (except taller 5th) - i use that for daytona. 3rd, 4th, and 5th gears are easy-determining your 6th gear is the hard part. the thing you need to determine is how tall of a 6th gear do i want. in other words, look at the charts where it has rpm vs speed for 6th gear. the RG50/Regear3-6 results in about 2700 rpm at 60mph-off the power band and thus for cruising down the interstate at 70+ mph. my road transmission is more like bill's in that 6th is better geared for interstate driving.

all of my transmissions were rebuilt (core exchanges). by doing so, i had the advantage of adding porting for a transmission cooler-if you are going to track the car, you need a transmission cooler with this transmission! (cheap to do at the time of the rebuild and you can just plug it off if you don't track your car)-go to steve's site about ring and pinion failure in these transmissions. i had a stock 3.6 and fried my transmission at daytona.-wish i had read steve's site earlier . as you can gather from this post, the advantage of a rebuild is that you can tweak/select the perfect gear ratios for your tastes rather than going with porsche's tastes.

the cost for each transmission (with core exchange) was about 8.5K. (most recent-one month ago) most important (and i can't emphasize this enough) , find someone who knows what they are doing for this kind of work and pay them for their expertise. don't be penny wise and pound foolish-this is huge investment and your need to get it right first time!

i think the best investment in this car (besides bilsteins, brakes, etc...)is a short box transmission rather than more horsepower/3.8 etc....



doug

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Truer words were never spoken,.....

sonny1

You should try a GT3 RS, then your opinion should change!!

mongrelcat

No doubt about it. As of today per Sunset a /21 w/ LSD is about $12K with core charge, a /31 (only (1) in all of the system), is $14.8K. And yes, the core charge is mandatory, unless a like gearbox is available for exchange.

NP993

Just to put one more option out there, here's what I did: I found three gearsets in /31 ratios for 3, 4, and 5th gears. I got a great deal -- $1500 for all three. Then I found a core LSD for $400 and had it rebuilt with the Guard friction plates for $400 parts plus a little labor. Under $1K for the slip all said and done. When I took my gearbox out to do the RS clutch/flywheel, I had Joel Reiser install the parts, along with upgraded shift forks. I did the R&R, he did the gearbox work.

In the end, I have virtually an RS gearbox for well under $5K. And yes, I wanted to leave stock 6th in place. It's my favorite gear -- perfect for quiet, high-speed highway cruising. Couldn't be happier with what I ended up with. But in my case it all depended on scoring the cheap gearsets.

JM993

Getting ready for the upgrade? It's worth it, believe me.

Funny that when a daily drive my new to me E46 M3 which has similar acceleration to my 993, how short first gear feels - almost unusable. In comparison the tall first gear of my g50/31 feels great except when starting off on really steep hills.

The price increase is a bummer. However, I certainly don't see the prices on the g50/3x transmissions going down anytime soon (or ever). It seems that soon regearing a g50/2x will become a better proposition from value standpoint than trying to source a g50/31.

Cheers,
Joe

e9stibi

+2

GBX

bringing back an old thread. i may have a line on a G50/33 from a swiss friend of mine. Is this a good box for street driving? How does it compare to the 21? Or am i better off regearing my own tranny (def more $ then the 33 i can get).

Bill Verburg

The /33 was used for the Swiss market as w/ the /20s in the US the Swiss priorities are not performance oriented, Take a /31 as the paragon of a street trans
/33
good;
generally the same internal components as the /31

1, 2 & 6 the same as /31

bad
3, 4, 5 are taller, 3 & 4 are the same as /20 5 is a bit shorter than in a /20 but is longer than a /31

overall it's better but still could benefit from a new 3, 4, 5

ToSi

I'd be interested in purchasing your friend's /33 if you decide to pass. Please PM me w/ contact info.

GBX

The 33 I had a lead on fell thru. I know it's time to look into a rebuild. How do singers gearbox ratios compare to what others have been doing?

Bill Verburg

Here's a comparison of several 993 trans w/ Singer, all are stdardized to the same tire and rev limit


It has the usual faults of a cwp change- individual drops are still awkward, too low, particularly in 1 & 2