Time for some data that can really help you understand how each of these mods might affect more realistic/common daily driving situations. I already showed how each power mod does at maximum acceleration through all the gears. Here's a refresher:

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That's all well and good, but it's missing the full picture of how each one can accelerate throughout the entirety of 2nd through 6th gears. You probably want to be able to see how much potential acceleration you might have at the ready in 6th gear while driving 70mph to have a good idea of how well you'll be able to manage hills or adjustments to speed without downshifting. So I created an acceleration chart for each of 2nd through 6th gears, showing the entire rpm range of each gear.

After the charts, I'll provide some examples of interesting comparisons you can do by cross-referencing between these charts.

**** BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THE CHARTS AND DRAW CONCLUSIONS ****

Some things to keep in mind:
  • These dyno charts all started around 2000 rpm, so I obviously can't show you how the Jeep would accelerate in 5th gear at 1500 rpm, for example. This is why you'll see the charts starting at fairly high road speeds in the higher gears.
  • The scale for acceleration is "zoomed in" progressively further for each higher gear. It's very important to keep scale in mind. For example, you'll see that at 70mph in 6th gear, the Magnuson can accelerate about twice as fast as stock. TWICE AS FAST! That sounds AMAZING! But that's twice as much of a very small amount. Go out in your stock jeep at 70 mph in 6th gear (if you have a manual trans) and and push the pedal to the floor. Not very impressive at all. Twice as quick as that is still not going to be impressive at all, and you're still probably going to want to downshift.
  • Also on the topic of the "zoomed" acceleration scale in higher gears... margins of error are also "zoomed in", or multiplied, when viewing the data for higher gears. What looks like a significantly big difference may very well be a much smaller small difference, or vice verse, if the torque data for one power mod had some positive error, and another had some negative error. My data points from the dyno charts will also be "spread apart" across road speed more in the higher gears' charts, which is another loss of precision/accuracy.
  • The "legal speed" area in the charts for higher gears is in the low rpm range (2000-2500 rpm in 6th gear). These lower rpms are just after the beginning of the dyno pull, which can sometimes have some misleading results, depending on how exactly the dyno operator pressed the throttle at the beginning of the pull, and how the computer reacts/compensates for different speeds of throttle transition. This is where the least trustworthy torque data will exist.
  • I'm particularly suspicious of the big "hump" in the RIPP torque curve from 2000-2700 rpm. This is not at all typical of the gains usually produced by centrifugal superchargers. I would not expect such large gains from the RIPP in that RPM range. I'd really like to see if this "hump" exists in other dyno results for the RIPP.
  • The Prodigy torque curve is quite possibly pessimistic in the low RPM range (below 3000 rpm). My torque data for Prodigy up to about 4200 rpm is based on an old dyno chart from last summer. Since then, there have been very noticeable improvements below 3000 rpms due to updates to the tune. I'm hoping someone will soon get updated dyno results starting from low rpms with a recent version of the tune.
  • In summary, the low rpm acceleration in higher gears is going to be the least reliable of all the data I have presented. It's not completely useless, but be sure to treat it as "vague approximation". The precisely drawn lines on the charts will trick your brain it to really wanting to think it means the data itself is precise. RESIST THE TEMPTATION!



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Now for some interesting example comparisons between charts...

Want to experience for yourself approximately how one of these power mods might feel? If you have a manual transmission, YOU CAN! Well... only if you have approximately the same tire-size-to-axle-gear-ratio ratio as me. My ratio is about 28.5 (tire diameter) / 3.21 (axle ratio) = 8.88. Multiply that number by your axle ratio to find out what tire size would be exactly equivalent. For example: 8.88 * 3.73 = 33.1, so a tire diameter close to 33" with 3.73 gears will have about the same relationship between engine speed and road speed as used in these charts. Follow these steps.
1) Pick a combination of speed, gear, and power mod. For example, 70 mph, 6th gear, Hemi.
2) Take note of the G-force for that combination on the appropriate chart: Just under 0.1 G for my example.
3) Look the stock acceleration on the other charts at 70 mph, looking for one that is around the same amount of acceleration: 4th gear is the closest match for my example.
4) Now go out on the road at 70 mph in 4th gear. The amount of available acceleration at that point is similar to how it would feel in 6th gear with the 6.4 Hemi!

NOTE 1: For some combinations, you won't find a close match at the same exact speed in another gear on the stock acceleration curve. In this case, you can just find where the stock acceleration IS a close match at some other speed, then go test at that speed in that gear. For example, The Hemi accelerates at about 0.175 G at 95 mph in 4th gear. The stock wrangler accelerates the same amount at about 45 mph in 3rd gear. So the amount of "pull" you feel at 45 mph in 3rd gear in a stock wrangler is similar to how much pull you would feel with a 6.4 Hemi at 95 mph in 4th gear!

NOTE 2: These acceleration graphs will generally scale down with additional weight. Because of aerodynamic drag, it's not quite a direct relationship, but you can still look at the relative/percentage differences for a close approximation for a heavier jeep.



Another interesting example is to look at a particular speed across multiple gears, and see how each mod stacks up against the others at the same speed, and how that changes in different gears. The two most polarized options are Prodigy vs Magnuson, so they will have the most extreme variations through the different gears.

For example, 70 mph:
  • In 6th gear, 70 mph, Hemi is king, and Prodigy... well, not so much at all. RIPP and Magnuson are doing much better than Prodigy here too.
  • In 5th gear, 70 mph, Prodigy and RIPP are now essentially the same, Magnuson is better, and Hemi is still king.
  • In 4th gear, 70 mph, Prodigy and Magnuson are now on par with each other, both doing better than RIPP, but still taking a beating from the Hemi.
  • In 3rd gear, 70 mph, Prodigy has taken the throne from the Hemi, and both RIPP and Magnuson on par with each other way below the Hemi.



Again, keep in mind all the things I warned you about at the beginning of this post. And really think hard about what you really want out of a power mod before making a decision.

It's actually quite amazing to have such a wide range of options available for the Wrangler. There really is something for everyone. Between Magnuson, RIPP and Prodigy, there's quite a range of options for balance between having low-end torque for less downshifting during normal driving ("feeling" very powerful at lower rpms) at the expense of maximum acceleration potential (Magnuson), all the way to huge maximum acceleration potential at the expense of low rpm torque such that more downshifting is required to access the fun (Prodigy), with a good compromise in the middle (RIPP). Then there's the 6.4 Hemi, which nearly allows you to have your cake and eat it too (low rpm torque AND huge max acceleration potential!), but it will cost you dearly.