RememberTheApollo_
Yeah, that’s true. Even today most people do a wheel dyno test vs an engine run in a stand, which is more likely for a specialty engine than an engine with bolt-on mods. I don’t know if 15% is still the general figure for power lost to accessories and transmission, but it used to be a popular number to throw around.
My comment has nothing to do with the damages caused by addicts to those around them. You’re right, it’s not black and white, and that’s one of the major issues about addiction vs the people who can’t/wont understand it from the outside. “All you have to do is…” is a cry of frustration and maybe even a defense against the damage caused by the addict. Yeah, they did the damage, no getting around that, and that’s a personal issue that I’m in no way qualified to make suggestions as to how to mend - if at all.
I’m absolutely not trying to detract from or minimize what you experienced, but neither can I offer an exception in your case that it changes how addiction works, and also I am in no way trying to be an apologist for the addict. It’s a shit situation. If it were easy we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Another realization is that I think the rule makers think they stand far above rule followers. They don’t care about rule followers, only make rules to reduce their problems by controlling rule followers.
I think that’s more about the person than the rules. There are plenty of people who follow the rules who also make the rules, it’s just that the rule makers that disobey the rules tend to be egregious and/or it affects us personally, and hypocrisy is difficult to swallow if you’re the kind of person that plays by the rules. I absolutely agree that rules are often made for the convenience of those in charge probably as often as they are made to address an actual wrong. Guess which one is most quickly enforced, though…
Anyway, I know that wasn’t the bulk of your post, but it was the one thing I could offer any decent conversation about. Hope you get what you need and you can feel part of the world around you instead of apart.
Another car guy. I had and built one of those old cool cars. They do two things really well: look cool and go in a straight line. No denying the wild styling was amazing then, modern cars are cookie-cutter the same for the sake of aerodynamics, efficiency, and safety. Heck, my boring-ass stock decade-old Honda will do 0-60 in about 7 seconds, and it’s about as exciting as…well, a boring-ass Honda sedan.
Engines back then had massive displacement but the materials science wasn’t there to drop in high HP at a reasonable weight for most cars with those hefty cast iron blocks. Now you can get 500hp without batting an eye on the LS platform, in aluminum, and higher HP is attainable without any extreme work at all. The most powerful V8 stock in the mid 60s was probably the ‘Vette at just over 400hp. ‘50s V8’s probably all put out less than 200hp. Modern stock V8s in some of the cars are just stupid powerful, I think the SRT is over 800. Nuts.
Ah, see…that’s where you’ve gone wrong. There is no “finish line”. There is no hands-off autopilot for human society. It’s a never-ending slog against all those people who want to game or corrupt the system for their own uses - which is almost always power or money, but often enough just to wreck everything because they want to watch the world burn.
Do you understand that?
There are only temporary victories that are immediately followed by trying to keep building the infrastructure supporting the greater good (as difficult as that can be) against those who want to tear it down by any means necessary.
It doesn’t end.
