Close ratio gears?

Crash

Yes, exactly. But you can have the best of both worlds if you have enough power. For both top-end speed and fast acceleration, you can do 1st-3rd close ratio, then make the spread from 3rd-4th more drastic. From there 4th-6th (7th or even 8th in some cases) can be more drastic. In the end, your top speed will rely on these things:
How much drag your car creates
How much your car weights
How much power you have
Your final gear (the gear size of your differential)
And your last gear of your transmission.

Assuming that weight and drag didn't have anything to do with it, theoretically, to increase your top speed, you can make the ratio for the final gear smaller, or make the ratio for the last gear in your transmission smaller.

To give you an idea of why power, drag, and weight have to do with it, the 2004 Corvette has 6 speeds. It has 350HP and 365Lbs/Tq. The final gear is a 3.42, and the 6th gear is a 0.5 while the 5th gear is a 0.85 (I believe). In this case, the top speed in the Corvette is achieved in 5th gear, not 6th because the car doesn't have enough power to push it that fast when it's in 6th gear due to drag. If the car was moving at 190MPH and then shifted into 6th gear, it would slow down to about 150MPH even with the throttal at 100%. However, theoretically, if the car had enough power to max out the RPMs in 6th gear, the Corvette's top speed would be around 250MPH.

__________________
2002 Corvette Z06 - Totaled
2003 Corvette Z06 50th Anniversary