[Dominik]

You raised a good point about the amount of shiftts to get to a certain speed. I always put some value to that too, i.e. I aim to get to 100kph (or more) in 1st, 160kph in 2nd, and 200kph (a decent 1/4-mile speed) in 3rd. If you build an engine to cover each gear in 4 seconds, you're on the right path ;-)