Originally Posted by Bob-Stormer

If you were a second off at a local event. My guess is that every piece of your puzzle needed a bit of work. Including the motor. And it's believed by a lot of people I respect, that the 3rd run on a stock rebuild is the best, hence your digging the motor. Look at your puzzle, and the next time you're running stock, stick to your rebuild regiment, but ONLY make changes to the car. Don't even change the rollout (assuming it's close). Don't just assume that because everybody runs a magenta, you should run a magenta. Or if everybody else is running .045 springs you should to.

What happens to club racers, is the race itself becomes of such importance (and it is important), that most people don't take the necessary time to really try things. And usually it's because they don't have the time. If you're 1 second off, you will never go as fast as you could, until you REALLY aren't afraid to take dead last.

Used to be that club racing was where you went with your friends to drive and have fun, share setups and learn. And then go to the big shows to see how you're doing. Seems as though more and more, it's ONLY about the club race. And people get pretty twisted up over the wins and losses at that level.

A car that is tight for me is loose for my son. Completely different driving styles. I'll try his car, it's almost perfect, I give it back to him... It's loose, you can see it as he drives it... It actually looks hard to drive, maybe even tweaked. I drive it again... perfect.

Always assume your car could be better, and you'll probably be right. Slap a 19turn in that thing, can you make it go 2-3 laps faster? If not, it's very likely that a faster (and it's a relative term) stock motor isn't going to help. If the car won't go faster with virtually unlimited power, then you're up against a different issue. A car that's easy to drive is easy to drive, fast or slow.