Zigroid

mach 1s are a close race. here is more actual data at the drag strip when I raced a guy 3 times in his mach 1 that had a catback and drag radials.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UMvGiK0lZY
here are the two runs:
me / mach 1
60': 2.207 - 2.028
330': 5.998 - 5.716
1/8: 9.014 - 9.114
mph: 81.80 - 74.64
1000': 11.564 - 11.879
1/4: 13.758 - 14.170
mph: 103.63 - 98.01

60': 2.262 - 2.049
330': 6.002 - 5.857
1/8: 9.006 - 9.001
mph: 82.16 - 79.48
1000': 11.565 - 11.648
1/4: 13.725 - 13.885
mph: 104.38 - 99.77

and I also raced my buddy in an '01 cobra with a full exhaust, 4.10 gears, and a CAI.

cobra / me
60': 2.283 / 2.239
330': 6.064 / 6.029
1/8: 9.073 / 9.048
mph: 82.55 / 81.97
1000': 11.633 / 11.621
1/4: 13.797 / 13.786
mph: 104.42 / 103.51
I disagree with you here. I see guys running the same car as me but they are going almost a second quicker and 3-4 mph faster. I dont drive that bad and I dont think its the track. who knows?

HAZ-Matt

Don't discount the possibility of people claiming their cars are stock when in fact they are not. As far as modded, it all goes out the window. However, another factor is wear on the vehicle, state of the O2 sensors, etc. Also basically no Fbody has original equipment tires so there is a wide variation in traction now.

I never really bought into the fact that there were huge power differences in factory mass produced engines with a lot of automation. At least not compared to the wide variation in driver skill, weather, track prep, and even vehicle weight depending on trim / options. I do recognize that there are disparate dyno numbers, which ideally would not depend on weight (even though in real life load on the rollers can mess with the measurement), but I haven't seen a published number for the precision of a dyno either. Add to that variation based on fuel trims from O2 error, dirty sensors, variation in coolant temp, transmission temp, and lastly dyno correction factors that may or may not be honest and you can get numbers all over the map. Who knows, maybe the break in period was vastly different leading to difference in performance.

With SAE certified power ratings, factory freaks really shouldn't exist at all anymore since the output should be within 2% for every motor... that is well inside the variation of ET you could get by error in throttle manipulation at the strip.

I wouldn't say that I am 100% discount the possibility, but I don't think there is sufficient evidence that there is a huge variation in power output between engines and vehicles rolling off the same line rather than the multitude of other factors that conspire to introduce variation in every trip down the 1/4mi. Now if someone got statistically significant number of cars off the same line, took them to the drag strip and did a whole bunch of runs then published the results, that would be interesting.