Consumer Report

[speedkills]

The automotive industry needs a consumer report organization to reveal and to test items that are sold on the hot rod market. When I hear about a smooth bellows giving a noticeable horsepower gain I get cautious. It is like the TV commercial on the K&N filter setup for pickups. Most of those in the commercial say nothing about the noticeable difference in power, just that it was louder. What suckers.

I would like to get a set of the MSD coils and wires but $500 plus could go against something else that would really make a difference. I am not going to take MSD's word for it and am likely to doubt a report from one of the hot rod magazines that recieve advertising money from them.

I have a car that runs consistent low 8's in the eighth and if MSD or any of the other manufacturer wants to lend me their products so that I can give my LS1 friends that straight scoop then I am open for the opportunity.

[0rion]

I think it's more of a snowball effect. 1 company advertises blah blah hp increase for a part and now every other company has to do as good or better because people buy what they think will increase performance and most won't dig for the real story.
The best articles in the mags are the "shoot out" articles with parts. Such as a lid article I read a while back. They strapped a car to a dyno and tried several aftermarket lids. The magazine then has no real reason to mislead anyone. They're just comparing parts. I think mislead is to strong of a word. They don't want to bite the hand that feeds them. Most of the population is going to buy the part that's more familiar. If you've heard of the company you're more apt to buy parts from them versus someone you've never heard of.