What size of gearing are you using in your BECs?

I am trying to decide whether to aim for 65 MPH in 1st, giving good top speed and reasonable revs at speed or whether to go for 45 in 1st and 65 in 2nd, giving better acceleration but lower top speed and higher fast road revs.

Is the acceleration significantly different between the two options? What are you all running? BTW I plan to choose an engine based on cost, availability and gear ratios.

Aim for around 120-130mph at peak rpm in top gear and you wont be far off with the gearing. If you gear too low you'll be forever changing gear and wont actually see much real world acceleration benefit and will limit yourself for track driving and motorway "cruising"

Im with chris on this one...

Ive aimed for about a 120mph top speed - thats with 195/55/15 tyres and a 3.38 diff - go hunting now for a nice tall rear diff, that will be the hardest thing to find.

this is my shortlist of prefered engines

ZZR1100 3.62 diff 195/50R15

1st 45
2nd 63
3rd 80
4th 96
5th 111
6th 123

ZX10 3.62 diff 205/60R15

1st 63
2nd 77
3rd 91
4th 104
5th 115
6th 122

Both give a similar top speed but one reaches 45 in first and the other 63. Will the low 1st be all wheelspin or will the tall 1st bog down before the revs build up.

[Edited on 7-2-2005 by smart51]

Either should be OK, the ZX10 you might need to slip the clutch more to pull away, and the ZZR might be a bit more prone to lighting them em up in the lower gears but thats easily modulated with the right foot