Originally posted by Fast-Ford
OK I WANT ALL YOU OTHER GUYS TO READ THIS WHO HAVE BEEN ARGUEING WITH ME. Apparently this guy actually has read a rule book for a sanctioned race series instead of a copy of Import Tuner, I am impressed!!!!!
For anyone else who is still thinking that torque and power don't win races answer this question: Why don't 4 cyls and 8 cyls compete in sanctioned racing series? I think a visit to your local short track would show you excatly how disadvantaged you are when you are underpowered.
I keep saying this: YES ON THE STREET WEIGHT AND REVS AND SO FORTH MAKE A DIFFERENCE BECAUSE FACTORY CHASIS ARE FAR FROM IDEAL........ESPECIALLY ON MUSTANGS.
I don't think it has anything to do with being ideal, it's just there is a lot of differences out there. When you consider the huge range of cars out there, you find a lot of different combinations of handling and power, and these different variations may or may not be competitive with each other.
The one thing about most sanctioned races (having participated in two college design versions of it myself ) is that there is an "optimum" design that gets repeated a lot, so therefore a lot less variety. However, one of the series I participated in had a intake restrictor and displacement rules, so suddenly power is a lot more similar, and handling becomes important. The other series was open class, so suddenly torque to weight ratio becomes a huge factor, more so than handling.
I'm not disagreeing with you Fast-Ford...a lot of series have the open class structure, and in that case torque does win out. Other series have limits on displacement and intake size, and suddenly other things become important. It really depends on the situation.
I said it once and I'll say it again. Torque is important, but a car with lots of torque is not necessarily a great car.