The gearing is amazingly tall, but
it's okay to rev these things to 3500-4500RPM. At first it feels stupid to shift into 2nd at 45mph, or into 3rd on the interstate, but when you look at the resultant RPM and BSFC, you realize that's how to drive it.
If you just upshift as soon as you can without lugging, the car is laughably slow, on par with a fully loaded tractor trailer. I've discovered elevation changes on my commute that I honestly hadn't noticed before.