well this is a very biased thing to say. How often do you drive your car on the highway? Is this your DD? Also how fast are you going when you are taching 2700...right at 70mph!! HAHA thats ridiculous! I understand steep gears are fun....but you have to go slow as hell on the highway. If i had to cruise at 70 on the highway all the time i'd pull my hair out! It would take you forever to get anywhere far...and infact 70mph doesn't even keep up with traffic on most large highways.
What happens if you want to cruise at 85? You'll be turning over 3100 rpm. Hows the gas mileage at that point...my guess is somewhere under 18?!
For a 5 speed street car...you dont need anything higher than 3.73's. 75mph is right at 2500...and 85 is right around 2700. I still pull 25mpg with these gears and i ALWAYS cruise at 80!
THANK YOU!. I wasn't saying you can't go bigger than 3:73s in a 5sp. I'm just giving my opinion of my 3:73s. On the highway, i cruise between 2500-2600 rpms, which is pretty high, and i wouldn't want to be cruising higher than that....... 4.10's would raise that by ~10%, which means i'd be cruising at just under 3000rpms, which isn't my cup of tea on a 3 or 4 hour drive.....
another factor no one has brought up is tire size. You can't really compare cruise rmp's or gas mileage an how the gears feel with out knowing your tire height. If you run a 275/60/15 dr (28" tall) 410's might feel like a 355 in a car with 225/60/15's.
When i had my fox I had 3:73's and they were perfect for me. But if i ever would have gotten around to a H/C/I swap i would have gone to 4:10's in a heartbeat. And another thing, noone has really mentioned, I wouldnt go with 3:90's. Yes the ratio seems nice, but FRPP doesnt make them to my knowledge, and I personally wouldnt go with any other brand.
LOL, but that happens all the time when this question gets asked . I agree with 25th and the others no easy answer, I went with the 3:73's having a 5spd and making the climb from stock gears. while I like it and it gives a nice kick over the stocker I could have went with 4:10's and still driven it on the highway w/o a problem, now I could be wrong but I don't think the 3:73's and the 4:10's are to far away or is it the 3:73 and the 3:55's has far as feel darn i dont remember but someone posted about this but I think it's the 3:55 and 3:73 since you asked about those gears.4:10's would probally be a good way to go and if you can't live with it swap out the gears and sell the 4:10's alway's a market for them.