A dyno number is meaningless without the rest of the info to tell the story, what are you talking about? Of course 2 cars are going to run two different trap speeds and ETs.. If the same car with the same mods dynos differently, there is something that needs to be addressed (like tuning). Some random HP number doesn't say anything at all except that that HP number was reached at some unknown RPM, some unknown load, under unknown conditions, etc. What do the torque curves look like? If the two cars are that identical, the only difference is the engine, right? You can tell which car is going to win if you look at the two dyno graphs and compare their torque curves, etc. If someone wins at the track against an educated comparison, it was probably something like a bad launch or poor driving. On the dyno you're seeing the real story, and when you go to the track you're just seeing whether the car correlates to the dyno results. If the two cars in question are only 8 HP apart, there is something very different somewhere in their power curves if one has a faster trap speed and the same ET. You'd see this on the dyno.

I don't care what ET a certain car runs based on the HP is has. That has more to do with the power to weight ratio of the car and the shape of the torque curve than anything else, plus real time factors like tire slip, etc. It can be a complete ultra high RPM queen, and if you can keep it in that RPM range, it might be quite fast. That sucks for anything but the track.
Taking the car to the track only tells you that the car is faster or slower at the track (than before your new mods), it tells NOTHING about how much power you've gained, and where you've gained it. You can lose power at low RPM, and gain at high RPM, or vise versa, and you could end up with the same track time. The car might completely suck for street driving now, but do the same at the drag strip. Worse yet, you might be losing power in some RPM/load breakpoints because of tuning problems, which you'd never know from driving it at the track. The only thing you find out at the track about your engine is how fast it makes a particular car in the quarter mile. That's such a small part of the equation, and the rest is being totally ignored.

I see what you're trying to say now, but you're still glossing over the importance of everything but the track it seems.. I agree that if you're happy with listening to ONE peak HP number from a dyno, you're going to have to take it to the track to see if you've improved anything. If you want to look at the bigger picture, the track will only serve to reinforce what you already know.


Flying blind like that on a dyno is as worthless as just heading to the track and taking a couple of runs. You didn't know any more or less about the dyno conditions that day as you did about the track conditions. You're not doing head to head comparisons either way, on the track or the dyno. If you're taking very careful note of the track conditions to make a better comparison, you should be doing the exact same thing on the dyno.

So yes, I agree that blindly doing something in a stupid uninformed way doesn't tell you anything.

 

The example I gave is actually of2 friends of mine. both with 05 Evos, dyno-tuned by the exact same person on the same day. Track results were 2 weeks later. They went head to head. Also after comparing dyno and track results on Local evo board and hugeass evo board the main consensus was that there was something wrong with Person A's car.

 

no stages but turbo upgrades

 

That's cool and all, but 8 HP and slightly better track times can be down to the individual engine. I don't care what an entire board of Evo people who have never seen the car say, conjecture doesn't get you anywhere.. Unless the same person drives the same car, there are still too many variables to compare two cars like that.