3.73s Or 4.10s

[2000xp8]

I'm just curious if your hostility was aimed at me, or if you really prefer to avoid information when making decisions.

No hostility aimed at all. Wasn't meant to insult anyone.
I just feel like real world experimentation trumps equations on paper.

While a controlled environment like the track will produce closer results to what engineering suggests, a car driven on the street will likely operate much differently, pavement, tires, air temp, suspension type throw some serious wrenches in theory. Most of all driving, guys with a heavy foot will just blow the tires off at every stoplight with 4.10's.
Some guys that goto the track and are serious have multiple rears or 9 inch center sections that can be changed quickly. If the math was right every time that wouldn't be necessary.

My point wasn't that you were wrong or right (because I have no clue either way), it was more to the point of pick a gear ratio run it and see if it's what works best, if not gears are $150, try another set.

 

[FastDriver]

Gotcha. Yeah, it seemed like you were opposed to looking at the numbers. It's just a personal preference. Some want to be as aggressive as possible on the track, and choose to accept higher cruise RPM, loss of some fuel economy, a jerkier 1st gear, and possibly over powering the tires on street radials. Others prefer to pick a point in the grey area.

Rear gear selection is normally pretty straight forward for optimum track results. You generally want 4th gear to take you through the traps at the optimum shift point in 4th in order to make full use of that gear.

For guys picking a transmission or the gears within the transmission, selecting 1st gear is harder, and I'm going through that right now. It's difficult to determine the fine line between where the car will bog, and where it will just blow the tires off. I could use someone with the rare experience of launching turbo small displacement cars through a manual. It looks like I'm using a 28" tire, and a 3.6 rear gear with either a 2.71 or 2.98 first. The two first gears are about a 10% difference, and advice to me has been split. I'm simultaneously worried that I'm going to blow through the 2.98 gear without getting traction when the turbo is fully spooled, and also worried that it will bog on the launch with the 2.71.

 

[modulistic]

I like my 3.08s. Easy non spinning launches, and higher gears in boost just seem to never end. you can really feel the boost building more and more power. Then again, Im a highway driving kinda guy.