hauling = northern term
This is going a bit off topic but, Scoff what code VAG box are you using and what would be best for drags?
Well, what I have may not be of much use to anyone because a lot of the choice making is going to depend on your torque curve, tyre height and predicted trap speed. I got 'most' of the ratio's right last year with my seat leon cupra-R gearbox, all apart from 1st gear which ended up being too short. Shifting even at 8200rpm would drop back to 5000rpm and since there was no boost until 5500rpm I had no power for about 2 seconds. also, the synchro's failed pretty quickly, adding to the shifting problem. The new gearbox has a mixture of ratios to suit my engine and new modified synchros, no off-the-shelf gear set was any use to me.
Bare in mind that the cupra-R gearbox probably will not be of much use to others either, it has a 3.389:1 final drive which is pretty tall. I ran this with 25" tyres so that I could do the whole lot in 3 gears. the new final drive is taller still, since I was running out of RPM's in 3rd gear last year. It should be good for over 140mph in 3rd gear
Back to the topic.... sorry
Take a look at an F1 engines combustion chambers, there's no way thermal efficiency gets a look in. Why do you think they run them so hot? Volumetric efficiency of itself isn't that amazing either, the clever bit is maintaining it at those revs; Cosworth claiming 120% at 20000rpm!!!!