The car still has the same 727 John Crisman (Tranzact of Indy) built when Mike Robbins was racing the car back in the day. PTC has been through it recently and they said it has all good parts (mostly from A&A). I hate the RMVB as it leaves me stuck in 3rd gear at the end of a run, plus I hate the damn Cheetah SCS shifter. Won't be using aluminum rods on the 496 re-do so breaking a rod on shutdown isn't as much concern. On the 1/8th with just NA power (enough to get 3150# to 6.32/111) I was into 3rd with only 100' remaining or so, so a 2 speed would probably be OK. I have that 727 tranny behind my mega/440-1 540 and it wouldn't be such a bad deal to have a completely new tranny/vert built for the 496 so the engine/ trans are a matched pair.