which gear ratio

[cykotic]

I'm going to be putting a richmond 6 speed into my maro. I'm going with the nice low 4.22:1 first gear. I'm thinking of using a very high 2.80:1 in the rear for great low rpms in 5th or 6th. Performance wise, will the low first gear be good enough, or should I lower the rear gear a bit? I'm also concerned about the strength of a 2.80 gear since it's pretty thin. It's a 9" ford gear though.