Several things you need to consider about different gear ratios and the application you use them for.
As said above ... na and pa makes things VERY different
Also a na stock or bolt on Stang acts differently
as opposed to
A na Stang with h/c/i for two main reasons
1) the power band has been shifted up
2) the power band has been extended
If you're gonna have a quick na stick trans Stang that works half way decent when you take it to the strip
The following needs NOT to be at the top of your concerns list
1) first gear traction when driving on the street
2) first gear being too short
3) highway cruise rpm's being too high
The things listed above and more might cause you to see that there may come to be a point in your Stang's life when ............
you start to see you need a beater to get around in so things like we talked about above don't cause you to have compromise your performance goals due to your Stang is your only mode of transportation.
Bottom line on gear ratios is ........
its the application that dictates the ratio
Perfect example is as above with Kyle ...........
A guy with a turbo will generally want a lower (numerically) ratio
than
A guy with a na h/c/i combo that does the weekend 1320 thing
Grady