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Welcome to EM Toby.
You and I share very similar cars. My Paseo is built on the same chassis as the Tercel and they also share the same engine. Unfortunately for me, the Paseo has shorter gearing than the Tercel. As it is, if you have the 5 speed transmission, you have the tallest stock transmission possible. The only option for going taller is to check if the 4 speed differential fits in the 5 speed bellhousing. But, even then, it will only drop your rpms roughly 100 @ 55 mph, so not much of a gain there. The other option would be a custom 5th gear. A few guys have tried this on various other cars and have had good success with it. Since you have access to a machine shop, you might have good luck doing a reversed 2nd gear (you'd need a donor transmission) as a new 5th gear. I know I'd love to do that myself.
Other than that, I'd definitely pump the tires up to maximum sidewall and focus on aero mods. An upper grill block would be an excellent start.
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