what is a gear change? would it just shift differently, and how much is it?

 

No it would alter your differential ratio, trading in top speed for acceleration

 

It would increase rpm in top gear and reduce gas mileage even when you're not accelerating.

 

No it wouldn't, engine rpm isn't altered regardless of what gear you're in, redline is set by the ECU.

 

I think he knows what he is saying by his statement "increase rpm in top gear". By that I think he meant, "At a set speed or your 'preferred highways speed', you will be at a higher rpm" (assuming you will go to a lower ring and pinion gear to increase acceleration).


Although, I cannot say weather or not I agree or disagree that this is a good idea. I am used to working on older cars where this is an easy answer to the question at hand. This car is much more complicated and dialed in. For instance, I hope that Infinity took the cam power band into consideration when choosing the tire/r&p combo (I am sure they did). Being that they probably know what they are doing, you might want to crunch some numbers before your just throw a new ring and pinion at it. You could be hitting your max torque at much lower speeds and actually hurt your 0-60. I don't know the nitty gritty enough about the car to give a great idea. I would crunch some numbers before you assume a lower ring and pinion ALONE would solve the issue.

Also, minimize throttle lag by gear alone can be a "dangerous" game for a car that you care to drive on the road. I have a competition rock crawling buggy that is geared very low and when it is in low range, it has neck snapping throttle response.... Problem being, it can only go about 15mph in low range (not going to happen in a road car, just trying to show you the worst case scenario for going too low).

 

Low end torque doesn't matter, if you're interested in 0-x times. With a proper launch, you're never in that "low end".

The best mod is free, except for time. Learn to drive the car. Second, shed weight. Third, get some lightweight wheels and tires. This will do more for you than the power mods.

Remember, there's two ways to change a power/weight ratio, which is more important at the speeds you refer to. You can increase power, or reduce weight. Of course, both is better as long as you can maintain traction...

 

So, rip out all the seats, head liner, door inserts, trunk liner. Toss the air bag..... Anything else you can think that isn't needed for drag racing?

Also rolling drag is the real killer. Make that driveshaft/wheels/brakes uber light. Get some gun drilled axle shafts.

 

How about some carbon fiber? I mean, fiber in your diet? How much do you weigh? It will be weird if you try to loose 50 lbs of car weight when you might be a bit overweight. Drag race naked!

 

Also take a big dump prior to leaving the house!