[DeTomaso] Hall Headers

[Daniel C Jones]

> If you're making 300hp, 10hp is rounding error.

Not all horsepower are created equal.  Maximum acceleration
is achieved by maximizing the area under the horsepower curve
between shift points.  10 HP at the very top of the rev range,
perhaps past the HP peak where the power is dropping off sharply
is worth much less than 10 HP across the RPM range.  An example
of the latter is a compression ratio increase which has the
effect of lifting the entire torque curve.

In designing the cam for Mike Drew's 408C, I iterated on
cam specs to provide the best area under the HP curve
between shift points.  It was easy to design a cam that
made 25 HP more peak power but would be slower because the
average was less (and be less tractable).

Somewhere around here, I've got the results of a dyno test of
eight different cams in a Ford 5.0L.  Even though the peaks
were quite different, the averages were very close (within
10 HP).

Dan Jones