Quote:
Originally Posted by speednjay
I had a 99 turbo diesel and never understood why Mercedes geared it that way. With all that torque and 5 gears it could cruise along the highway at idle speed.
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Because the gear ratio spread between first and fifth is essentially the same on all 722.6 transmission. they built two families of the 722.6 a high torque and a low torque version. Within those two families they all have the same gear ratios. That's how they got the economy of scale. The only practical way of making fifth taller is by pulling in a taller diff which would make offline acceleration in first gear slower. So you're diff ratio is a compromise between accelerating off the line and your ears bleeding on the freeway. My 97 non-turbo diesel (first year of the 722.6) got an even shorter diff. I don't even bother taking a road trip anymore, it's too noisy. Modern 8, 9 and 10 speed transmission offer a much wider gear ratio spread.