Originally posted by: Dead Parrot Sketch
You might do better to refer to rear end gears as a differential. It is less confusing, particularly in the context of front wheel and all wheel drive vehicles.
If your posts on other boards are similar to your last one here, I can see why they get confused.
By a "geared car" I take it you mean a car with a lower final drive ratio ?(higher numerically)
A Mustang with final drive ratios in the range you mention, 3.73 to 4.10, is hardly going to be out of its powerband at 60mph.
If you have 2 identical cars, with the only difference being the differential gearing, the lower geared car is going to almost always out-accelerate a higher geared car, until the lower-geared car's engine rpms reach a level where torque falls off dramatically. I would guess that's somewhere between 100-120 mph if the car is a stock 5 liter Mustang.
As far as rolling starts, it's possible that at a certain speed the higher-geared car would be at a more optimal rpm in a certain gear, but the same thing would be true at different speeds for the lower geared car.
edit- just wanted to add that the lower-geared car will require the driver to shift gears at lower speeds, so depending on the speed reached at the end of the competition the lower-geared car may have had to shift gears more. If the person is competent at shifting gears this shouldn't make a whole lot of difference.