[DeTomaso] Speeds by Gear

[Brent Stewart]

I got back yesterday from a fun trip down to LA from NorCal to visit vendors.  I was on business anyway and figured I needed to allocate a day as we really don't have any dedicated Pantera shops in the SF Bay area. I stopped by to see PI, Precision Pro-formance, and Hall. 

I've only had my Pantera since May so this was all new for me.  And yes, I was a bit of a "kid in a candy store". Hall, as you all know, was particularly fun because I got to poke through the "museum".  I spent some time talking with Bev and Tara and came away with a few things that could fit in my carry on.

One of the highlights of the trip was stopping by and spending a good part of the afternoon with Art Stephens. If you haven't seen the pictures the crash he survived, it was amazing.  And to actually see the Pantera in his driveway, with the Utah dirt still in place, was scary at best. But Art has moved on and has a new '72 Pantera that is in very good condition. With a little TLC, it'll be as good as the previous one.

Which brings me to my question.  Art was gracious enough to let me drive his Pantera a bit. It has a mostly stock engine with around 30k miles. The engine pulled VERY strong, but the speedo wasn't registering correctly so we're not exactly sure how fast we were going. I do know the RPM's and the gear, but haven't been able to do the translation to MPH.  All i've been able to find online is this:

http://www.panteraplace.com/page3.html

Does anyone have a quick formula for translating the gear ratios (The 1st gear ratio is 2.23, 2nd gear is 1.47, 3rd gear is 1.04, 4th gear is .846 and 5th gear is .705.) into MPH based on RPM handy?

Thanks!

brent