There was a quite interesting discussion on weekend at a local meet. Some friends came up to show their rides and the current progress. Yes, finally the winter is over (I hope!!!) and since the last days were sunny it was a nice meet with many friends and some fun.
Now while we were sitting some newbies showed up with quite cool cars and talked with us, and to keep the whole story short the most intensive discussion was as usual "My car ist the fastest". I have to point out that most competitions (illegal in regular) start at a red traffic light and end at the next traffic light or a point of interest which was defined before. So most of these races are drag races. I noticed that many enthusiast mean HP and turboing their ride when talking about tuning. That's nothing new to you of course, but I also noticed that their understanding of car setup and engine modification ends with integrating a turbo. Discussion got hot when I stepped in and supported the thesis that:
- Drag racing is not mandatory for the real speed of a race car (or somehting thats intended to be a race car).
- A car without any engine tuning could beat a turbocharged car of the same class easily.

The crowd got quiet. I could read in most faces something like "What the hell did this idiot say". Some of the "older" guys smiled. And then we had a discussion which should take over some hours. Some of you who already have been on a race track or drove a fast car already, or some of you who build cars with mind know what I'm talking about.
People talked on me, many different opinions broke over me like a wave and all the people seemed to be pissed like I had said something really bad about them or their families. I waited some time to let them cool down and explained and I'm writing down these explanation because I realized how less some of the youngsters know about cars. It seems that someone told them that the only way to get a car fast is to push it to the HP limit, no matter how, with supercharger or turbocharger. Here is my explanation and feel free to correct me if you think you are right but I will show you that there is more than a high HP number.

- Drag racing is not mandatory for the real speed of a race car (or somehting thats intended to be a race car).
Drag racing is cool and is a welcome and easy method to challenge someone on the streets. But drag racing is not a representative method for a complete race car. It's cool if you have the fastest drag race car on the world, really, but no track is a straight. Pushing your car to the limit with bigger turbo etc. might help on the straight but I cannot remember any competition where you drive strictly straight. If so you wouldn't need a steering wheel. A car is intended to work also on corners (and especially imports ) so you can be proud when running the quarter mile under 10secs but thats really not all. If you want to show how fast your car really is take it to a race track and compare your lap times with reference lap times of your cars class. That will give you a much better impression of how competitive your car really is. (This doesn't count for cars which are specially build for drag racing of course ;))

- A car without any engine tuning could beat a turbocharged car of the same class easily.
This thesis was already proved more than once so here are simply some facts. Take two Honda S2000. The first one gets only a drivetrain package, suspension, lowering springs, lighter rims, lightweight package and new aerodynamics (like aero body kit parts).
The second gets a turbocharger and some engine goodies like valve springs, new header etc. We have a HP increase on the second car from about 70 HP at least but also a weight reduction on the first car of about 50 KG and of course the new driving behaviour because of the drivetrain setup.
Now take a track and let those two cars take some rounds. You already know what the result is. The more and sharper corners the faster will the first S2000 be. It will loose some time maybe on the straight where the turbocharged will benefit of the horse power difference.
This is not a fictive example but daily praxis on the race tracks. Believe it or not. Of course if someone builds a race car he won't only build the drivetrain but also the engine. I just wanted to show here an extreme example.

It's known that I'm more a friend of weight reduction and suspension tuning than on droping a big engine into my car. All the things above might sound like all the same violine to you but I was more negative impressed that guys with high power BMW did know so less about complete car tuning.

Thanks for reading this :)

Hahaha, I didn't know that this is still an issue. The points are good and you are definitely right. We might not forget that there is the Drag racing as is, which is a sport and competition of its own, but I also agree that the complete setup makes a sports car. And Hey we should definitely care about drivetrain and weight reduction. Why else are we driving japanese cars? LOL i try to imagine how the eyes of the people turned on you and the silence which ruled the place. It's like in those bad movies where the character steps into a bar and the music stops and the talking stops and all the heads turn towards him LOL

nope I think you are not right. Tuning a car doesn't mean of course only increasing horsepower. But the usual steps are to increase HP as much as you can. Usually people increase hp with a turbo or supercharger and run out of money for drivetrain mods. They safe the money then for bodykits or interior. So its not an issue of not knowing how to tune a car properly but a money issue. I would also prefer to increase hp and concentrate then on the other stuff. I would not go for a car that simply looks good because all the JDM conversions but has only 110 HP under the hood. And about the drag stuff. Who runs on a track? Nobody. If you run your car then on the streets. And if you challenge someone then on a straight so the drag is the only possibility to compare two rides.

Usually I would also go for turbo or supercharger, changing pistons, air intake etc. engine tuning is the way to go for more power. Of course drivetrain is important. Who wants to have a 500 HP car which runs 40 KMh on the corner.
But I'm still pro for HP tuning.

Ok I see, but why are we in love with japanese cars? Not only because they look good but also because they are lightweight cornering machines. Most japanese cars are lightweight and thats why they are competitive. The Honda Integra Type R with its 1.8l and 1800 ccm has stock 194HP here in europe. This car drove at prof. races in the 2.0l liter class and was very very competitve. I comes stock with only 1020 Kg!!!
Why are we able to challenge VW Golfs and BMW and all that ccm-monsters? because japanese cars are really already stock so lightweight and with good suspensions and setups. Of course they have great engines (an example is Honda getting 100+ HP from 1.0 l like 1.8l with 194 for the integra and 240 HP at 2.0l for the s2000) but thats simply not all!

It's all about horsepower, usually. It's the most effective way getting a car fast. suspension and stuff come usually  second. I'm a friend of drivetrain improvement but first thing to go is horsepower

Yeah horsepower!!!! all about horsepower! 

Tuning a car means enhancing it. Whether its the outside or the engine or anything else. Tuning with performance in mind means to go for HP. Tuning with keeping an eye on different tracks means that the drivetrain suspension etc is a must. As said above: No track on the world is a straight and as long as you are no drag racing pilot you should consider tuning also drivetrain. I met people who had damn cool cars with 400+ after tuning and they run on stock brakes and suspension. This is not only stupid but also dangerous. Imagine how you want to keep this car in a corner on the track? Late braking? forget it. It will shoot all the way out.