First of all my personal opinion is that the entire article does a great dis-service to the Grand National image, and to put it bluntly it contains lots of inaccurate information as most of us know you do not have to spend $10K to achieve those HP levels. [The $6K+ figure was parts, labor - you guess that number?]
But the topic here is the RJC power plate "a power robbing mistake"?
Many people who voice their opinion as fact, and also do not quantify their comments for the application, but make blanket statements, Dan White has done just this in that article. How many GN's run 9' and 10's on stock computers?
The initial track testing of the RJC Power Plate was done at the annual Buick event in Bowling Green when it was introduced many years ago.
The testing was done a project GN build-up to evaluate added performance with various up-grade parts to obtain detailed performance data under controlled conditions.
The data was compiled by Ken Moser who also furnished the lap top and Turbo-Link software, and lots of expertise.
We first established the stock baseline performance numbers of the project GN, and as we added parts each one was tested at least 2 track runs recording E.T. and MPH.
The only performance numbers etched in my brain are the ones for the PP.
The before and after runs showed .2 ths increase in E.T. and 2 MPH difference and of course the larger number is after.
It took a few runs to baseline the stock car as we wanted to determine the exact and highest boost number w/o any knock retard.
It also took a few runs to then determine how much we could increase boost before knock after various parts were added.
Ken and I did this over 2 mornings consecutive mornings at Beech Bend Raceway and averaged these numbers for the PP as well as for each other added items like a TA-49 turbo, Dut neck IC, TH DP, cold air intake and more.
I do remember many of these details because had the "fun job" of doing most of the parts changing, and all of the track testing!
This testing results were also documented in the GSXTRA newsletter, but even though I clearly remember the above details, the exact year is lost somewhere in my gray matter, but it was when Jason introduced the RJC PP!
My final comment is that at higher performance levels the PP could be a restriction, but the Hot Rod GN did get to the level.
I am suprised that no one has made a comment that replacing a $2 plenum gasket would have gone a long way is solving most of the issues on that GN build up!