Under Performers

[travis]

For track cars, I’d say gears and converter is the most common.

For street performance cars, usually over cammed or low compression or gears or converter or tune or...

Gears and converter can right a lot of wrongs!

[6.50camaro]

Seeking advice from the internet and listening to the wrong people ( other under achievers) . Dan

The internet can be a double edge sword, you gotta use what makes sense not what you want to hear. 95% of what I know I learned online! Same with advice from people, listen to it all but use what applies to your situation. I like to classify the post above as missinfomation, the type that discourages people from trying their selves and just pay me to do it for you cause I know what I'm doing. Please don't take this as a personal attack, I just don't like to see this type of response on a SHARING information platform.

I did not mean to discourage anyone from using forums like ST . I should have emphasized the listening to the wrong people more. You read that as two statements not one complete sentence.I also have learned a lot from forums such as ST . But you need to listen to the advice of proven achievers not keep asking the same questions till you get the answer you were hoping for ,as I've seen happen. There are many here on speedtalk that give honest straight foward answers. Some that give you a small portion of the picture to point you in the right direction and you need to be research and dig and come to the rest of the understanding yourself . And some who just what to preach their own favorite ideas unproven far fecthed and unrealistic.
As far as pay me to do it for ,I'm just a old school home garage guy who has been playing around and racing dirt bikes ,roundy rounds and drag cars since the mid 1970's I'm not selling anything or service . No personal attack taken . Dan

[BOOT]

Just wanted to not discourage the nonposting readers, I've read something like this comment more than once, "long time reader on ST but this is my 1st post", that applied to myself for some time. I feel these days alot of people are turning to FB or other social media platforms for their info and that forums are far superior! Course some would argue quality over quality and they fit into the older days were better crowd(seems everything is always remembered as use to be better) but then you get a tight grp of the same ol peeps, w/o new blood things get stale and fade away. Kinda like some motorsports, they start new and fresh, then a few make it too the top, they use their influence n change rules to set things up to protect their thrones and discourage new rival blood and the sport gets stale n fades away cause peeps get tired of seeing the same few race.

Rant off!

[tenxal]

Most are completely out to lunch on the convertor and gearing. It's amazing how people never look at other classes of cars to see how they do things. Looking at NHRA Stock Eliminator cars that do amazing things with very restrictive rules would be a good start for most.

[ClassAct]

For track cars, I’d say gears and converter is the most common.

For street performance cars, usually over cammed or low compression or gears or converter or tune or...

Gears and converter can right a lot of wrongs!

DAMN!!!! I forgot to mention compression ratio too. I can't count how many guys came in with 10.5:1 compression and cam 'do accordingly. Then, when you take it apart and look at it and measure it, you find its over a point low. 9.2 or some crap like that.

So I change my answer. Gear, converter and compression ratio are missed.

Today, you can get a 4K converter that acts like a stocker while driving around. I know a pig being built when the guy says he has a 2500 stall converter and a 3.23 gear. And a CR of 10:1 and he didn't measure the CR.

It has pig written all over it.

[paulzig]

DAMN!!!! I forgot to mention compression ratio too. I can't count how many guys came in with 10.5:1

Everyone has 10.5 on the dot... No one has 10.35, 10.55, 10.75 anymore... Lift a head off and see the piston down the bore .040, yeah it aint got 10.5 ...

[travis]

DAMN!!!! I forgot to mention compression ratio too. I can't count how many guys came in with 10.5:1

Everyone has 10.5 on the dot... No one has 10.35, 10.55, 10.75 anymore... Lift a head off and see the piston down the bore .040, yeah it aint got 10.5 ...

Or 10:1 flat tops...no matter how far in the hole or what heads are on it

[rapidride2]

Maybe this is why I see so many 1500 hp procharger cars running low 9's.

[rustbucket79]

Pig or turd, my two favourite terms for disappointments.

As a side note on information, you can find literally any argument for or against anything in the internet, so you have to somewhat know the correct response when you ask the question. I think it's human nature to lean towards the argument that supports your belief, but that's where the problems start.

[jake197000]

used to drag race snowmobiles on ice quarter mile.guys would hide there clutches with a towel when there hood was up.i didnt.what works for you might not work for me.details.or they would fall for all the marketing tricks.just because its anodised dont make it fast.

[BOOT]

I'm gonna say comp, gear and stall can be tuned around. They just make it a lot easier if you got em. For example I've beaten a lighter car with more of all of those and just had a stock 1500 converter, 8-1 comp and 3:42 gear. He even had 62 more cubes, new AFR heads and a larger tire! Tune & car setup or your just dropping names & numbers.

[Jeff Lee]

Racer will spend tens of thousands on the chassis, tens of thousands on the engine, buy a race manual transmission, then gag about spending $3K to $6500 on the right clutch. Then he’ll put some leftover from the ’60’s and wonder why it won’t ET like it should while bragging that the engine makes so much power it breaks the transmission and / or the rear end.

[BigBro74]

Jeff I agree a lot in a way- I think most miss it in the budget! Not always in the lack of initial funds—

Due to great advertising , many spend money on things that are designed to reduce your wallet more than the ET.

There are a lot of really great products out there- but the return on investment is not the same for all of them.

[Orr89rocz]

At the drag track, its always car setup and using the power they have made at the engine. Sometimes converter or gear or suspension. Cant 60 foot cant 330 ft it aint gonna run like it could. Driver mod. Some short shift as well.

In todays newer cars that always seem to dyno big, they never run the number cuz they just arent set up for drag race or its a manual trans and ppl cant drive.

[Dave Koehler]

The short shift thing bugs me far too often.
A mythical bracket dude has a BBC, lots of good stuff that indicates it needs shifted around 8500.
It is an under performer.
Said dude shifts it at 6800.
Why?
"I don't want to hurt it."
I don't even bother trying to explain it these days.
I just nod and walk away.