Whoever taped it PLEASE make me a copy. I'd like to get a laugh or 2 out of it.
I missed it obviously
but going from what I've read so far I didn't miss all that much.
A blown IROC in the low 13's
. Heck, my street setup lame jane 350 TBI is hot on it's heals.
BTW, GM HEI vs MSD is kind of hard to explain without getting into details. First off, MSD will not make any more power but it WILL increase throttle responce at LOW engine speeds AND increase milage on most if not all wedge head and low tech engines. The MSD only fires multiple sparks when it has time too. This happens to end around 2400rpm or so (could be wrong but I know it's a low engine speed). After that it's single fire typical CDI style. The advantage of CDI is the "hotter" energy spark. Where as inductive HEI will loose spark energy as engine speed goes up. The limiting factor of STOCK GM HEI is about 450hp and 6000rpm, anything more or above those numbers can and usually does see slight horsepower gains with a CDI.
Now here comes the tricky part; a lean motor (like the untuned supercharged IROCs on that show) will also benifit from a CDI spark. This is because lean mixtures are harder to get lit. So by using a very fast and "hot" spark from CDI the mixture is lit reliabily where as the HEI at high RPM and high dynamic pressure will have a harder time being reliable.
That is everything in a nutshell.
As for the shifting manually, I'm assuming it they were auto's. In that case I've found every thirdgen f-body I've driven to be faster in the 1/4 when shifted manually. I've driven 4 thirdgens in the 1/4 and all of them had aftermarket shift kits and no governer modifications. In other words, peak engine horsepower at 5000+rpm yet transmission shifts AT 5000rpm, that isn't the fastest way down a 1/4 mile unless you've got traction problems! Even with traction problems I'll cut 4 tenths off my times shifting myself and gain 3mph. Since they were old guys please tell me they just kept screwing up the timing of the shifts.