Performance comparison?

[Damn True]

What you are saying is true regarding driver ability. A good driver can usually make a slow car better, but a good car usually does not make a bad driver better. But there are exceptions. Witness Bobby Rahal at last years Montery Historics getting SMOKED by some dentist because the car Rahal was in was a POS.



That said if you are running within a few ticks of a record at Willow, and I am running a few ticks from a record at Thunderhill we can infer that the combination of car/driver are pretty close.

An interesting topic just the same.

[Matt@RFR]

True, my take on it is that your idea is great for bragging rights and comparisons, but worthless for testing different components against each other.

There's only one way to do it: Same car, same driver, same track, same weather, ONE change at a time, and allow time for tuning after each change. And the results MUST include driver commentary on each change, not just numbers, IE "It's a tenth faster, but man is it scary to drive."

[Bill Howell]

I am with Matt as far as his "True Comparison". That is the only way to compare parts. However, in the real world, driver ability is certainly in the mix. Everyone is a rock star in their mind until they actually drive in a real car on a real track under real race conditions. Then everyone finds out their faults.

It is really strange to me that for the first time ever, there will be about 40-50 cars right here, in Pigeon Forge, to do a bit of comparison and this board has been absolutely silent about it. You would think there would be a bit of smack talk anyway but not a peep. Funny thing is, after years of talking the talk, I guess for the most part we have a bunch of bench racers here. Sure, there have been some killer racing on the west coast between a select few of members, but we have NEVER had the chance to see any real racing on the east coast. Come on guys, lets hear some smack, lets hear some predictions, lets hear something. I personally have seen some of the participants coming already in action on the power tour. This should be an event for everyone within 1000 miles trying to attend. We almost have a full field now for the autocross which is no parking lot course. Personally, I am so looking forward to going up against some of the hottest cars in protouring right now and seeing just where my junk falls. I know it will be an eye opener for everyone that attends. Who knows, maybe a 4th gen camaro will have bragging rights, maybe a new Z06. Maybe a 69 camaro. Trueth is, there will be some questions answered here in about 6 weeks. Regardless of who comes out on top, we will have some bench marks for the bench racers to talk about.