It’s difficult to build a seat-of-the-pants launch in a 3,500 pound car with a small block without using the tall gears.

Highway speeds are certainly different than typical cruising. With the 26” tires you’re turning 3,452 RPM at 65 with the Muncie 4 speed. A TKO 5 speed with a .68 5th gear would drop your RPM to 2,348 – that’s huge (over 30%) and would make things a lot nicer in the car at freeway speeds. The 5 speed swap (done correctly) could set you back $2,500-$3,000, depending on how much you’re comfortable doing yourself.

All this is good discussion but it sounds (to me) that if you want to have a cruiser with a lot of stoplight snap that sounds wicked and yet still can do the freeway you need to look at dropping big bucks on a 5 speed or installing a big block if you want to get the rear end down in the mid-3.xx range.

More than $1,000 needs to be on the table with whatever you do