[aumoore]

I have a Hunter Cobra with a 85 vette rear end that came out of a automatic car. It came with 2.73 rear gears and it was a bear to launch with my 5.0 motor. With my SD T-5 trans(2.95 first gear ratio) it was good to about 55 in first. I rarely used 4th and the overdrive 5th was useless at anything under 80. I changed to 3.73 gears and what a differance. The car launched so hard with the new gears I found out I needed jet extenders in my carb. This never happened with the 2.73 gears.

I agree that with a manual trans you need gears over 3.00 and a 3.31 or 3.55 would be perfect with a big block.

To figure out the final gear ratio multiply your first gear ratio by the rear gear ratio. Here is an example:

my old setup 2.95(first gear) X 2.73(rear gear)=8.054 motor rpm to one wheel revolution

my new setup 2.95(first gear) X 3.73(rear gear)=11.004 motor rpm to one wheel revolution