One thing to keep in mind is that many of our individual goals are different. What might be a good plan for one does not work for another. A good comparison would be WhipCat’s car vs mine. Both big hp motors, but that’s where the similarities end. While he will go to the drag strip on occasion and wants to run good there... his is not specifically a drag car. It needs to be a much more versatile street car so there are compromises to accomplish that. Mine..... is planned to be a drag car that can occasionally be driven on city surface streets with one passenger and all the interior amenities. But.... it is primarily a quarter mile drag car. What is important to me when planning out my build has been reliability at the track and being able to go rounds. I have invested in a truck and trailer in order to be able to get the car to events around the country. That kind of travel is expensive. If you haven’t done it... you have no idea! The cost of fuel and other travel and race related expenses are significant so when building one of these things to do that, you are confronted with the realities of breaking parts and having spent that travel related money for nothing when you do. Because of that..... I have “invested” in some costly parts that are what some would consider overkill. Perspective....... I once traveled from Calif to Gainesville, Florida to race and a part failure kept me from qualifying for the field. Instead of racing on Sunday, I drove all the way back to Calif. That kind of experience leaves an impression. And for me..... that’s where decisions concerning the trans comes in. This thread is all about the realities of using the stock trans in 1000 hp cars at the track. To me it’s incredible that they can do it at all. Damn good stock piece if you ask me. But..... it’s apparent that there is a limit. Whether it’s a limit on a certain hp number or number of times you can do it doesn’t matter...... It’s there. There is also the tuning question. It is a serious management challenge not only to get it to live but also get down the track putting all that power to use. That’s the main reason that so many high hp cars don’t produce the performance results on the track that might be expected. Rather than deal with that, I made the decision to not deal with that. I have a $10k+ T400 waiting to go in in two weeks. There is no tuning (money saved). Shift management is my right hand on the shift lever. There will be no breaking or rebuilding expenses. It may cost as much as three A8’s but I’m taking the ‘you can pay for it now, or pay for it (along with the associated headaches) later approach. Hopefully.... competition in the hp90 rebuilding industry will lower the cost of doing that. In the mean time.... if your plans include going to the track more than once in the future...... WhipCat’s plan of having a spare handy isn’t a bad idea if you can find one at a good price. Which of coarse leads me to say..... I have one for sale 😂
