when draging some one from a stop will starting off in drive be quicker then starting off in overdrive, i know after third gear i have to shift into overdrive since drive only has three gears on a 94 z.

 

Makes no difference. If you set it in drive it will stay in third, whereas you det it in OD it will wind out third & go into 4th.

 

Would it be faster to do 1st and 2nd manually and then go into drive?

 

overdrive is not technically another gear. what it does is lower the output of your engine while maintaining or increasing the output of the transmission. at highway speeds, this lowers the rpm's of the engine while still allowing you to maintain those high speeds. its meant to be a fuel saver. if your racing, and your in third gear then go into overdrive, i guess you can think of it as another gear, but i thought you should should know its not. so to answer your question, your better off starting in drive and switching later.

 

Yes.. Even when you have it in first it will shift to second on its own before 5700rpms... so I'd just leave it in second at WOT. However I have a Transgo shift kit, mine will hold 1st, 2nd, & 3rd to whatever rpm I want it to.. Helps from a dead start.. that 1st to 2nd stock shift point makes you a sitting duck..

 

Overdrive is better for toping your speed out but does not help for racing it takes longer for toping it out to drive is the only thing to do I know these from trying them and asking my automotive teacher he has backed my theory and said it has been proven we're both right....the 1st or L to 2 or whateveryou do DOES NOT HELP on newer cars because the computers counter it if your runing up to guessing 1985 he says 1980 for most but I had an 83 I try'd it with....... and it worked but anything newer then 1985 does not help hope this helped Nick!~

 

ok ok we get it

 

damdog05
What are You trying to say? Is it that the engine is making a change for OD or that the transmission is changing the engine? The GM overdrive is a 4 speed automatic transmission. It has 4 forward gears. 3 gear is a 1.00 - 1.00 ratio with 4th gear being about .071 - 1.00 ratio. I've never heard an explaination like You've given here. If there is something I'm missing, please explain.

 

in a vain attempt i think he was refering to the lockup converter, but who knows. the point being, you need to forget about overdrive when drag racing. Sick