Stang9946

Just thought I'd share this with anyone looking or considering buying an aluminum drive shaft. I had contemplated buying one for over a year. Last Friday night I got drunk (awesome ) and said f**k it and ordered one from AM.com. Just bolted it on this morning. It has noticeable pick up improvement and drives much smoother. With my Am.com discount I got it for $305. A little more than I wanted to spend, but hey, you only live once right?
Is it worth it to spend $305? No, not really. I think $175 would have been more on the money for bang for buck. Overall I'm pleased with it. If I had to put a number on it, I would say that acceleration speed increased by about 5-10%. Noticeable, not "OMFG!!" drastic. Just thought I'd share because I know there has been a lot of speculation with these by a lot of people.

lizzyfan

Over 300 wow, I remember when they were under 200. Yea, I really never saw any noticeable improvements when I installed mine but the beefy-ness of the U-joints make it worthwhile!

Stang9946

Yeah it was like $259 at AM.com and then they were outta stock for like 8 months. When they got them back in they went up to $325. Stangmods.com has it for $280.

Kerns

10-15% would be a drastic difference. Would be like taking 10 sec to run 0-100 then adding the aluminum DS and doing it in 8.5-9 seconds. Which would be a HUGE difference.

Stang9946

Thanks for pointing that out. Fixing it now. Meant to put 5-10%. That's increase in acceleration. Not power. Probably would drop a tenth off 1/4 if I had to guess.

Kerns

Not talking about power. A 22.5rwhp gain in car that puts down 225rwhp is 10% increase in power. A 10% increase in acceleration is basically going from 10 sec to 9 sec to achieve the same speed. Or in the same time increasing speed by 10%. So say you go 0-60 in 5 seconds. If you increase acceleration 10% then you now can go 0-66mph in 5 seconds. Which is a huge gain. If you are talking .1 sec off a 1/4 of a mile time of say 13 seconds. 13 to 12.9 is less then 1% increase in acceleration. .1 seconds is still great... just not 5% increase in acceleration great.

ddmsgtr1

While we're on this subject, can anyone actually feel a tenth of a sec. difference? I can tell when my car hooks good and is on a good pass, but I wouldn't say that I really felt a difference between the number 13.2XX's it's ran and the best of 13.14. Is it possible that if you feeling even a little difference that the upgrade could be worth just a bit more than a tenth?

Stang9946

I agree with you but your "10 sec to 9 second drop for the 10% increase" isn't exactly how physics work. Math, yes. Physics, no. For the most part I still probably stand corrected though. Lets just say it's not drastic but "noticeable".

I would say you could probably "feel" or guesstimate 1-2 tenths off. But I suppose it would probably depend on the car as well. If your car runs a 13.8 and drops to a 13.7 or 13.6 I would imagine you would be more likely to feel/notice it as a apposed to a car that went from an 11.2 down to an 11.1 or 11 flat.

Kerns

Should be the opposite. 11.1 to 11.0 is a much larger change in terms of % decrease vs 13.8 to 13.7 its kind of like to have a 14.0 second car go to a 12 second car takes us from 225rwhp to 400rwhp. 175rwhp difference. But to go from 12 seconds to 10 seconds doesn't take 175 more rwhp. More like 300 more rwhp. In terms of the math vs physics argument you are correct in a way. You don't accelerate in a car at a constant speed so going from 0-60 at 5 seconds doesn't mean you go 0-120 in 10 seconds. You are gradually slowing down due to factors such as wind resistance, gear ratio, drivetrain loss, etc. But a 10% increase in acceleration would still be a drastic difference. Like .5 seconds difference from a 14 second 1/4 mile to a 13.5 (totally guessing in terms of actual improvement since I don't really want to do the equation)

Stang9946

That's what I said/meant.