Gearing question

Okay, so now that I've decided to build the land-speed Pinto wagon, I've got a couple of rear-end questions. If I'm running a 302 and a T-5, and I don't need any low-end torque (no launching whatsoever--rolling starts and all top-end speed), would it be smart to simply go with an 8-inch open differential and 2.73 gears? Is it possible to go even taller than that, and would it be worth it? And finally, do 2.79 gears exist? (Someone is selling a set, and that's the number he gave me. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img])

Thanks!

Gary

As far as I know, 8 & 9" rears never came with 2.73 gears. Thats a 7.5 and 8.8 ratio. 2.79 was a standard gear for years. It may be hard to find a lower gearset for the 8". You might try to look at granadas and monarchs, I have seen 2.50s come from them. If I were land racing a car, I would keep several pumpkins all set up and ready to go with different ratios. The pumpkins are easy to change. 2.79 would be a good start.

I'd go with a .80:1 5th to lessen the gear spread between 4th-5th and use a lower rearend gear.

BTW all topend power isn't neccessarily the right way to go since the motor must still have enough balls to pull itself back up after a gear change.