Hmmm, interesting. "Looking at the whole picture." I don't think I've ever thought of it quite that way, but that's exactly what's going on. Bench racers get numbers from magazines, have no real understanding of what they mean, but use them to support their contentions when bench racing. They never look at the whole picture, becaue they don't understand all the factors that are a part of that picture. For some reason that seems very insightful.

Whenever possible you always want to get others to race you on your terms. If you're driving a 1969 VW Beatle with big back tires, you want to race from a standing start, and you want to shut down after 30 feet or so, because once you've used up first gear, it's all over. In the S2000, your greatest strength (in a contest of acceleration) is in a pull from 6,000 RPM, in either first or second gear.

If you can make the other car/driver run YOUR race, you can often beat much quicker and/or faster cars. Ask Tripper Cook what it feels like to have an S2000 with under 200 WHP outrun your 400 WHP Skyline R33 GTR.

 

^ What kind of race was that?