A 440 doesn't need a lower first gear than 2.45, so that point is moot.
My old M.W. stocker like the Mopar 2.77 low gear set at the drags
That car ran low elevens back in the late 1980s on nine inch tires, that car liked the low gear set a lot. It out ran every Mopar M.W stocker in B/SA at the 1988 NHRA World finals
I had heard of several other M.W. racers in 1964 cars that said that same gear set in their cars spun the tires
But they didn't change the rear gear ratio like I did when I did that gear swap in the tranny
If you don't test, you don't learn
Some times you have to go sideways or backup to find what does work in testing
