Im getting better but I still occasionally fall for those magazine head lines promising things like
"8 new big block combos over 600 hp" or 30 MINUTE INTAKE MODS YOU CAN DO FOR 45 HORSEPOWER
Im standing in the local supermarket waiting in the 10 item or less speed line, for some old lady who doesn,t read or speak English, to empty 18 things onto the conveyer and pay with a check which that line does not allow when I see the latest car magazine with a head line about big block builds, now after 45 plus years I know better but, theres still that faint glimmer, of reason that thinks, they might be actually telling you the truth this time,.. yeah! after 45 plus years of reading magazine articles in car magazines I should know better! , but hope springs eternal and I buy the damn magazine , take it home and look at the index, don,t find what Im looking for, speed read thru it cover to cover only to find the cover blurb as usual is a near total fabrication and total misrepresentation.
the only new info is the way the adds and marketing slants the advertizing, put out by some engine builder very thinly disguised as an engine build, article and listing options, to make some engine builders products seem like a screaming bargain until you realize the cost is WAY MORE THAN a years pay for an engine with all those little options required to actually allow it to make the advertized power levels, because the low cost entry level bargain base engines that are advertized are a total pile of import parts you would not choose to run in a grocery getter that never exceeds 4000 rpm
and if you start upgrading parts to what you want, you could easily spend more money than you made in the last 4 years combined...I especially like the way they ignore the extra cost and time, but mention custom port work, and the use of trick components that are not even listed as options in the engine being dyno tested, or the fact that if you ordered the engine they just built it would cost far more than even the listed engine options, or the fact that they just happen to have $7000 in spare un-used parts on the shelf from the last build, that they used, in this build, because they had them, but they added nothing to the cost ,damn I,M TIRED OF BAIT AND SWITCH B.S. MAGAZINE ARTICLES
YEAH! THE GRUMPY PART OF THE NAMES EARNED

related
http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/viewtopic.php?...

I've found that no matter how much technology advances, the basics of horsepower still stay the same. The same things still work, and the same old gimmicks still don't. They just keep repackaging them.

My favorite is the $1,000 (or whatever) budget build-up were they say, "We already had a Holley carb and some freshly ported heads laying around."

And, geez, for twice the price of a single magazine at the store, you can usually get a 12-month subscription. Shame on that lady for holding up the line!

• Mr. Sinister Said:

Don't get me started on the new whiz-bang cams where the vendors promise unheard of performance, but don't mention the tradeoffs -- reliability and noise.