Gear for torque or speed? (Not strictly bike related!)

[MattShill]

Right, sorry to clog the place up but I know there are plenty of techies here among us and I'd value your help.

For a uni project (first year engineering) we're building a model car powered by a spring. We've worked out the friction between the wheels and the 'road', so we've got a maximum value for the amount of tractive force we can put down without spinning up the rear wheels. I'm doing the gearing, and my question is this:

Should I aim for this maximum force value, since the more force we have the faster the car will accelerate? If I gear it down even more then the force at the wheel will be less, but I keep coming back to the fact that it'll be rotating quicker. Say I change the gear ratio so that the rear axle spins twice as fast but with half the torque, would that just be stupid?

From an acceleration point of view I suppose more force is best, which explains why we start our bikes in first gear. Anyway, any thoughts would be great.
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Living life in the second overtaking lane!

'98 Kwak ER-5

[iooi]

What is the aim ?
Top speed, distance covered, fastest over a measured strip ?

You need to decide which of the above is most important to your project really.
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[MattShill]

Best time over 10m, so we want to get the power down as quickly as possible. Can't help but think I'm answering my own question here, if we want to get all the power from the spring in 10m then there's no point gearing it for anything less than the maximum allowable force I suppose.
____________________
Living life in the second overtaking lane!

'98 Kwak ER-5