Gearheads and racers cheating..... Say it isn't so......

Had some people ask about why sometimes production examples don't match the performance of "Prototypes" tested by magazines. They also asked why sometimes magazines bash a car and say they performed worse than expected.  The reasons vary-sometimes the manufacturers want to sell the cars so badly that they supply "Ringers"- i.e test cars that perform way better than any production example, because they have equipment or "Test Conditions" the average Joe could never duplicate. And sometimes they get cars out of the "Test Fleet" that have a lot of hard miles on them, and have been abused, and have problems that a new one wouldn't have. Here's some examples of both circumstances. # 1. 1964 GTO. This one is still the undisputed champ. Jim Wangers finally admitted 40 years later what we already knew. Car&Driver's May 1964 test car was a ringer. It ran a blistering 4.6 second 0-60 time and a 13.1 second 1/4 mile, frying the tires halfway down the track on 7.75X14 bias-ply Uniroyal Tiger Paws. This was possible because Royal Pontiac had pulled the original 389 and replaced it with a blueprinted 421.  # 2. 1969 440 6-pack Road Runner. Plymouth gloated in ads about the "prototype" running high 12s "Under controlled conditions". Those conditions included a re-curved distributor, custom jetting on the 3 Holley 2 bbls, slicks, 4.30:1 gears, and -oh yes-the "Professional Driver"-NHRA Pro Stock Drag Racing Champion Ronnie Sox of- Sox&Martin fame. Think a production example with street tires, 3,23:1 or 3.54:1 gears and piloted by "Joe average" might run a tad slower? # 3. 1973 Olds 442. Motor Trend had a "1973 Performance Cars Preview" issue in late 1972. The GM "A" bodies were redesigned for 1973 from the classic '68-72 style into the unpopular '73-77 "Collonade" hardtops. This change was supposed to happen in '72, but a UAW strike caused GM to sell carryover '71 models as '72s. Anyhow, their red and silver '73 442 blew the doors off all comers including a 455SD Pontiac Trans-Am, a 454 Chevy Corvette, a 401, 4-speed AMC Javelin AMX, a 351CJ Mustang Mach 1, a 429 Gran Torino, and a 440 Dodge Charger. It was later ascertained that instead of the standard 250 hp Olds 455 V8, TH400 tranny and 2.73:1 or 3.08:1 gears, this one had been brought to "The top of specifications"-which included a re-curved distributor, a re-jetted carb, a "W30" hot 328 degree cam, a 2,400 rpm Hurst "Shotgun" torque converter, a TransGo shift kit, and 3.42:1 gears. Yeah!  # 4. 1973 Dodge Charger. Car and Driver also tested a bunch of 1973 Musclecars. They were disappointed that their 440 Charger ran a lackluster 8.6 second 0-60 time and a pathetic 16.9 second 1/4 mile. They admitted that the car had a noticeable miss, and they thought it might have been running on 7 cylinders. It was later ascertained that this example had been in the test fleet a long time, had 6,700 hard miles on it, and had a blown head gasket. A re-test a few months later bore this out. The healthy one with only 250 miles on it ran a 6.7 second 0-60 time and a 15.0 1/4 mile. Nearly two seconds better on both times. # 5. 1978 Dodge Li'l Red Express pickup. In Car & Driver's November 1977 issue the "Li'l Red Truck "Prototype" blew the doors of a '78 Trans-Am and a '78 L82, 4-speed Corvette. However- the 360 V8 in the "Prototype" had NASCAR style "W2" cylinder heads, a hot cam out of the old 340 / 6-pack, an aluminum Holley "Street Dominator" intake manifold, a 600 cfm Holley Double-Pumper carb, and catalyst free dual exhausts. ( Legal on trucks with higher than a 6,000 lb GVW rating ). Needless to say, the production examples with a garden-variety 360 with standard heads and cam, and iron intake and a Carter Thermo-Quad carb and catalytic conveters were substantially slower. # 6. 1978 "Macho T/A" Dennis and Kyle Mecham made a ton of money selling "Macho T/A's" in the late '70's. Motor Trend tested one with a Turbo on it that couldn't even break out of the 17s. Sad, when a bone-stock one ran 15.11 and 15.04 for Hot Rod and Popular Hot Rodding respectively. Both of these road-tests used "some wheelspin" and all shifts were "lift-throttle" High Performance Cars dropped the clutch at 3,500-4,000 rpm and powershifted their way to a blistering 14.78 in their Formula 400 test car. Hot Rod tested a normally aspirated "Macho" that ripped off a blistering 14.29. It turned out that C/ D's test mule had been in the buyer's posession for over a year, he hadn't ever even changed the oil, and that the Turbocharger had a stuck wastegate and wasn't functioning properly-obviously. # 7. 1993 Mitsubishi 3000GTVR4. This one takes the cake-Mitsu engineers and their ad agency boasted that this all-wheel drive Turbo V6 sports car blew the doors off both a Chevrolet Corvette and a Porsche 911. It ripped off a blistering 13.5 second 1/4 mile, "On a closed course, under controlled conditions, with a professional driver." The "Conditions" were this-they disconnected the knock sensor, disconnected the rev limiter, filled the tank with 104 octane racing gas, dropped the tire pressure to 15 psi, and had the "Professional Driver" pop the clutch at 6,200 rpm and powershift at 7,000, which grenaded the $5749 transaxle after 3 runs. Gee, wonder why production examples only ran mid-14s?  Mastermind