[Tommy]

Tortuga - Great looking engine. I bet it sounds good too.

Over the years I've noticed lots of guys with street cars putting their dyno HP number in their screen name or signature. And it appears that many of them spent many thousands of dollars for performance they can talk about but will never fully use. I did something similar recently when I ordered a custom engine equipped largely to look and sound right. I didn't specify a HP number to the builder and I picked components less likely to fail sooner (e.g., no solid lifters or high ratio rocker arms). The engine builder, who likes to post dyno videos online, made multiple dyno runs making adjustments to whatever, to achieve one run breaking the 600 HP mark. I feel confident it was more about his future business than me.

The bottom line for performance is that engine dyno numbers don't mean much. What matters is chassis dyno numbers with all the accessories, exhaust and other factors brought into play. For me, all that matters is that it looks good and sounds great.