I agree with you on the HP numbers. The biger question is, how much HP does it take (or torque) to obtain the goal? (10 sec qtr mile, 0-60 in 4 secs, etc).

My 79 lincoln with the boat anchor, i mean factory 400, Ford says in its lit that it does 160hp. Now, 1979 should be NET numbers, not RW measurements. The only one i ever heard about bein dynos was in a truck magazine. C6 trans and 9" rear, got a whole 60 hp to the wheels!!!!! After reading recently (here and in a magazine) about trans and rear end HP 'useage' the 60 is probably about right!

SOOO, if 60 hp can move 4800 pounds of beast (not quickly mind you) then if'n i do the basics (intake, cam, elec fan, headers/dual exh, mebbe a carb) then i add conservatively 60 HP (160 top 220, right?) then i should get that extra 60 DIRECTLY to the wheels (no added drains in the drivetrain) - so if i DOUBLE rear wheel HP, how much improvement should i see in actual use?

So there should be a correlation between HP, weight and 1/4 mile time? So if we know any 2, we can calculate the third, right?