You need to do testing and tuning to get the best results....

I talk to a lot of people who complain that their cars don't perform up to magazine test cars results. As I said in a previous post sometimes the test cars are "ringers" i.e.-supertuned or mildly modified. Even when their bone stock there can be glaring differences in 0-60 and 1/4 mile times.  The last 400 4-speed Trans-Ams tested in 1979 are a good example. Car and Driver's test car ran a 15.3 second 1/4 mile time. Hot Rod's ran a blistering 14.61. Was Hot Rod's car a ringer?  No it wasn't. The difference is the driving technique. Car and Driver launched the car a 2,200 rpm with "some wheelspin" and all shifts were lift-throttle. Hot Rod Revved it up to 3,500-4,000 and dropped the clutch hard, and powershifted their way to the 14.61. Popular Hot Rodding and High-Performance Cars tested 400 / 4-speed Formulas. PHR ran a 15.04. High-Performance Cars ran a 14.78. The difference could have been weather-maybe a headwind, or track conditions or driver skill, or maybe one car was just a couple tenths quicker. That happens. In the early 90's several magazines tested "5.0" Mustangs. The 1/4 mile times varied the quickest being a 14.72 and the slowest being a 15.29. The test cars were all 5-speeds, some had 2.73:1 gears and some had 3.08:1s. Some had only 250 miles on them; one had 5,600. Certainly small differences could be attributed to one having a better broken-in engine, or slightly stiffer gearing. But 14.70-15.30 is a broad range-six tenths, which would be six car lengths in a drag race. ( The rule of thumb is 1/10 equals 1 car length ). Most of this was launch technique and shift points. All the testers said the car's would spin the tires as long as you want to stay on the throttle. While that's great for a burnout contest, it's not conducive to quick 0-60 or 1/4 mile times. Most of the testers would pop the clutch between 2,500-3,000 rpm which would cause the excessive wheelspin-and would shift at the 5,500 rpm redline. Hot Rod got the fastest time by slipping the clutch and walking it off the line at 1,800-2,200 rpm, and short-shifting at 4,800-5,000 rpm. This avoided the excessive wheelspin on launch and made maximum use of the 302's tractor-like torque curve. Yeah, the engine would rev to 5,500 and beyond, but it wasn't making any more power above 5,000 rpm. Revving to 5,500-5,700 was just beating up the valvesprings unnecessarily. I learned this when I had my '69 Judge and again when I had my '77 T/A. The Judge was a Ram Air III / 4-speed model with 4.33:1 gears. It also had an Offenhauser Dual-Quad intake with two 750 AFB's on it, a hot Crane Solid-lifter cam, and Hooker Headers. It also had Lakewood Ladder bars and N50X15 Mickey Thompsom "Hot-n-Sticky" rear tires. It launched best if I popped the clutch about 3,800-4,300 rpm. Below 3,500 and the car would go slower. Above 4,500 and it would blow the tires off. But in that 500 rpm window it would come out of the hole like a rocket, with just enough wheelspin to get the car moving with alarcity and the engine up on it's torque curve. Because of the RAIII 400's massive torque times didn't vary much if I shifted between 5,800-6,200 rpm. I could run it to 6,500-6,800 if I wanted to-but the car didn't go any faster; I was just beating up the bottom-end and the valvesprings for no reason. Once I had mastered this technique I was deadly in a drag race. Rev to 4,000, side-step the clutch, powershift at 6,000, rock-n-roll baby!!  But I had to play with shift points and launch rpm to know this. And it matters even on cars that aren't super-hot like the Judge. My '77 T/A was a 403 Olds model with a TH350 and 2.56:1 gears. When it was bone-stock I figured out it made no difference on launch if I just punched it off-idle or if I powerbraked it to 2,000 rpm. Neither technique showed a noticeable gain over the other. This was probably because the 403 made 325 lbs ft of torque at 1,600 rpm. This torque rating was identical to the 400 Pontiacs, except the Pontiac's torque peak came much higher in the range. I learned that shift points made a difference even with an automatic. The car ran quickest if I shifted manually at 4,900 rpm ( 1-2 ), and 4,400 rpm ( 2-3 ). After I modified it with Hooker Headers, a Holley "Street Dominator" intake, a custom-jetted Quadrajet, a TransGo shift kit, and swapping the R46SZ ( .080 gap ) plugs for R45S ( .040 gap ) plugs the 1/4 mile time dropped substantially-from 16.3 to 14.9!! The plugs made a big difference. Even with the headers and the single-plane intake-the car had noticeably more power-but it would start to run out of breath about 4,700 rpm. Even GM's mighty HEI couldn't bridge an .080 gap at high rpm. With the .040 gap plugs it would pull hard to 5,400 rpm. With this serious extra power infusion, I had to change my driving technique. Now the car launched better if I powerbraked it  to 2,000 rpm. And it ran quicker if I shifted at 5,200 rpm 1-2, and 5,000 rpm 2-3.  So it's definitely worth it to take the time to play with launch rpm and shift points and find your car's "Sweet Spot".  That's how my T/A beat many supposedly "faster" cars.  Mastermind