I did some maths and based on the gear ratio and tire size, at 60mph (26.8224 m/s) the engine speed should be 3724.481296 rpm. (3.7 x1000) A UK delivered L880k will be doing 3,678 rpm and a JP L880k MT will be doing 3,901rpm Specs on the LA400k MT: 5th gear ratio: 0.75 Final drive: 5.545 Wheel diameter (mm): 572mm Hopefully my math was correct. (edit: compared with an online calc and got the same result)
Just thought I should share my excel spreadsheet here too since it has the gear ratios and speed and such for every copen calculated automatically. There's also an estimated top speed calculation in there too https://ag28s.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/9/7/119797526/daihatsu_copen_drivetrain_simulation.xlsx
Cheers mate. But I know the 880's (I have one). Was just wondering the L400K's to see if they improved upon the high RPM on the highway. I figure it's probably similar. Can't figure out why they haven't just added a 6th gear. It's really the Copen's (or all kei-cars for that matter) Achilles heel. Perhaps its only one.
Although I also wish Copen had a 6th gear, the current gear ratios make sense in Japan, basically the only market where the L400 is marketed--you rarely reach 100 km/h and 80-90 km/h are a very common speeds in the highway. Keep in mind that maximum torque is achieved at 3200 rpm, and in 5th gear that means 83 km/h. But it would have been great to have a long 6th gear for hypermiling. (Honda S660 and N-One do have 6-gear gearboxes). Cheers, Regulus-2020
The bolt pattern of the JB-DET is the same as the EJ-VE (which you can find in the Cuore/Mira/Charade L251 for example). I am not sure if for some reason you can't swap these gearboxes, but if you can it would reduce your RPM's by a factor 0.72 (so you can cruise 60 MPH @ 2700RPM, but still only 5 gears though). The bolt pattern of the KF-DET is similar to the K3-VE (probably wouldn't work) and possibly equal to the KF-VE, however I can't find too much information on this gearbox. I would expect it to result in the same sort of RPM reduction though. I'm currently looking into getting as much information together as I can about this possible gearbox swap (JB-DET to EJ-VE) before I actually dare to do it. Do you have any tips or tricks regarding (removal of) the gearbox? I'm looking forward to try it, but I do currently lack the confidence (and also the right tools) to actually do it.
