Kinda OT: What does overdrive mean?

[treed2 at wsu.edu (T. Reed)]

Well Gordon had a more detailed historical account, but I've always
understood that overdrive simply means a situation in which the
wheels are spinning faster than the engine. Hence, they are being
"over-driven". Heh!

Technically there may be more to it than that, tho. Looking at a VW trans
like the AGB.. 5th is 0.91 and is considered the only overdrive gear
because its ratio is less than 1. But that doesn't take the 3.67 final
drive ratio in to account at all. If you swapped the final for a 3.94,
would 5th still be an overdrive gear? It's kinda ambiguous.

If you really need that exact of a definition, somebody will step up and
hash it over. But I doubt thats really necessary..

-Toby

On Mon, 2 Feb 2004, Kervin Ridgley wrote:

> I had someone ask me what overdrive means in a transmission, but I don't know.  Can someone explain it to me?  Thanks
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