Your favorite rear end/final drive ratio and why?

MRGTX said
What did you pick? Why? Are you happy? Do you wish that you picked something different?

About four years back, after saving up a wad of cash, I had the chance to pick out my "dream" rear axle assembly. My vision for my car was to make it as fun as possible on curvy back roads, probably take it to the autocross at some point, and to generally make it exciting and engaging to drive. To me, this usually means higher revs and lots of shifting.

With that in mind, I chose a mechanical limited slip (Eaton Truetrac) with 4.10 gear ratio. After living with it with two different engines and two different transmissions (just did a 4spd swap), I am not sure if I would have been better off with a lower numerical (more highway oriented) ratio. The main problem seems to be the lack of an overdrive gear and engines that don't exactly love to rev. The two 5.9s I have had tend make their power down low where they don't need as much help from the short gears.

My current engine is a Blueprint 408 stroker making about 460 at the crank driving an A833 4spd with stock ratios. There's more than enough power to overwhelm the tires in almost any gear...at least with my 255 no-season BFG T/As.

Would it be more fun with 3.23s or 3.55s? I just don't know and experimenting is outside of my budget currently... I'm hoping to learn from you guys before I invest.

Sounds like what I like. In the 80's the general consensus among A body guys than had street cars, the best all around gears were 3.23s. 3.55 made little difference at the strip compared to 3.23 and got worse mpg. 3.91 leaned more strip oriented and 4.anything were race gears. Keep in mind most of my thrashing was with a 64 Barracuda with a hot 273 and a 4 speed. I've run everything from 2.76 thru 4.10 gears. Tires from 25.6" to 23.4". I still think 3.23 gears are the best all around if going with 1 set. Funny noting that 3.23 was the standard gear for High Performance A-Bodies whether 273, 340, or 383. My brothers 67 273 car and my 68 383 Formula S have always run 3.23 sure grips. I always found it funny that guys with 4.10 gears and lower in their "race" cars would be putting along about 60mph as we would cruise all day long at 100 mph in the upper midwest. I had 4.10 gears in the Barracuda for about a month, pulled them and traded them off. I could not get traction at all, I don't know how you guys with big motors keep traction on the street with a car made to take corners.