You're right. It's the "Bolt on Horsepower" mentality which seems to abounds
in the small block chevy world. I was just hoping that if I asked questions I
could get answers. There are some guys I've talked to, like Jack Drews, Ken
Gillanders and Steve Long that freely share information, but many others that
don't. If the numbers have never been measured, e.g. advance curve, flow
bench, cam lift curve etc., that tells me a lot. Uncle Jack says that a lot
of these parts are designed by the "Urban Legend Method". I like that
description.
Bill Babcock wrote:
> If only that problem were confined to triumph parts. In defense of the
> vendors, technical information generally doesn't belong in marketing
> materials since the overwhelming majority of people are not capable of
> interpreting their meaning and don't care much. But the overwhelming
> majority of performance parts are made by guesswork or formulaic
> approaches. Test data and specs aren't just "guarded", they often don't
> exist. When they do, manufacturers have found again and again that buyers
> are unsophisticated and always think more is more. More duration is
> "racier", bigger carbs mean more power, bigger is better. All anyone needs
> to do is to publish a bigger number to outperform your numbers. So they
> don't play.
>
> It's stupid and painful, but the mass market trains these folks.
>
> That's why in small, technical markets (like the REAL racing world--F1,
> ALMS and Le Mans, Factory work, WRC, anywhere where people race cars for
> their one and only job) the technical details abound. In larger markets,
> it's all bullshit.
>
> I make my living from that bullshit. Good thing I found something I have a
> natural talent for.
>
> Bill
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