Rhett, I agree completely. I know I might be leaving a little power on the table by running 23* locked but as I've mentioned..... I'm basically as fast as I can go with my current roll bar.
To answer an earlier questions. This car gets driven on the street all the time. 1,000 miles at drag week and weekly street driving all other times of the year. But I have no complaints about how it drives on the street with 23* locked out. I pretty much drive like a grandma until the right time and place then it's WOT. Not much in between.
Eventually though you'll get a cage, right? So that should change your thinking in terms of value and use now and in the future.
If you do street driving with locked out timing you are giving up a ton.
As I've said before, ALL ignition boxed retard worth RPM. Every one of them. Some as much as 2 degrees!!!!!!
So think about that for a minute.
You set your timing at 23 degrees at a 1000 RPM idle. We will use a 1 degree/1000 RPM retard. At your 3000 RPM where boost starts you'll only have 20 degrees. At 5000 you'll only have 18 degrees of timing.
You'll never see this with a timing light because the strobe doesn't react quick enough to catch it, but it's real.
If you don't account for that, you are just making your tuning harder because the plug sees the retarded timing but the timing light doesn't. And if your not good at reading plugs, you'll never see it on the plugs yourself, even with a clean cutoff read.
Just things you should consider. I realize you are not considering power at the moment due to the roll bar issue. But the day will come when you can look for power. If you buy pieces that are upgradable you can buy the basic box and oil now and upgrade later. And start developing your tune up and plug reading skills.
BTW, things like being able to pull timing out at the hit and drop your 60 times like no body's business. Then ramp it back in and make it run out the back door like a freight train.
Just things to think about.
