I understand that a lockup converter will be better for street/highway use because of its ability to stop converter slippage when locked but what about at the track? When my car is on the dyno, midway through 3rd gear, the converter locks up and according to the dyno graph, drops rwhp a little bit before it starts to rise again. Does this mean that this actually hurts trap speeds. Will a non-lockup converter normally trap higher speeds or will converter slippage pretty much even things out?

 

That is a real good question. I have a spool in my and I was told by a friend who does work with a Busch team(Will Hobgood's team, if any has heard of him) that said lockup converters and spools hurt horsepower a bit. I guess it kills horsepower when it locks up and sends the power to both wheels, you probably good get more torgue down if the engine only has to turn one wheel. I guess the rear end can rob some horsepower. We put a spool in my car because we broke the spider gears twice in a row at the track, so we just got the spool so it could handle the abuse.