Depends, is it a European or an African Swallow?
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Depends on how much torque it makes.
Jay Leno's Blastolene Special redlines at just 2,900 rpm. Six gears only, but over 3,000 ft lbs of torque.
The Merlin-powered "Beast" uses a three-speed box. That engine revs to just 3k rpm. There's a Merlin-powered Rover that does 160 mph at 2,000 rpm. It could do 96 mph at 1,200 rpm in the same gear, then.
If you have enough torque, shifting down to 600 rpm on each shift, I'd say ten or twelve gears might be enough...
