Yes, it's hard to feel seat of the pants improvements
unless they are really pretty significant. Something
like two HP at the wheels is pretty hard to determine
on a car that's maybe making 60 or 70 horsepower at
the wheels. Even if it's THERE, which it most
certainly may not be.
Worse, the more you spend, the more your brain wants
to feel gains, you know? And with an exhaust, or an
intake, it's roaring away and sounds all cool, and
it's very hard to stay objective.
When I worked at AutoThority years ago, we were making
computer chips for Porsches and BMWs. And although
the days of making significant improvements from a
chip are gone, in those days many of the cars actually
did experience some fairly impressive gains. But some
models didn't make any power at all - they would just
increase throttle response. Even in those cases,
people would call back RAVING about how fast their car
was with the chip, even though it probably wasn't
faster in any way. Just more responsive.
On a related note, I fabricated one of those "airbox
bypassing, open-element K&N filter" intakes for my
Porsche 944. It sounded SOOOOO cool, but it was
drawing hot underhood engine air and was actually
probably making LESS power than stock. But man, I
could have sworn the car was faster... I figured I
needed a name for it (even though we weren't going to
sell it) so I called it "The Big Suck." Which somehow
felt appropriate.
=====
Paul Misencik
1971 MGB Vintage Race Project
www.sopwithracing.com
Huntersville, NC USA
www.paoloroman.com
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