I've done a lot of reading on here and there's some gripes with the gear spacing of the AP1's? I didn't notice such issues when I drove the AP1 the other night. What year did it become AP2? 2004? Did they change gear ratios in any other year other than in 2004? The gear spacing seemed reasonable when I drove a 2000 model last week.

 

The gearing is fine, tho some here believe that it was stretched alittle too far in 1st, thereby compromising low-end performance. That's why the final drive change is becoming the popular modification. It helps alleviate the lack of grunt.

 

The 2004 became known as the AP2, at least in N. America. The secondary reduction gear in the tranny was altered to make the first 4 gears perform like you had 4.3 final drive in an AP1. 5th and 6th gear was changed so that the overall cruising rpms would not increase significantly from the AP1. It is the lack of that extra 1000 rpm at the top that brings the geared top speed of the AP2 down to around 150 mph. However, this is not big deal, because this was also the drag limited top speed of an AP1.
This resulted in the AP2 having just a bit more grunt out of the hole, but because of the reduced redline, the performance of the 2 cars is very similar.

 

The tall first gear also puts a lot of stress on the clutch if you're trying to launch hard. There was always a very fine line between burning the clutch and bogging down. With shorter gears it's a lot easier to get a good launch.

 

No offense, but you're never going to have really good low end performance in an S2k unless its been blown or turbo'd. I dont mind a taller gear, I rarely go from dig so I'd rather have a bit taller gear I think...and 9000rpm makes for some great fun