Originally Posted by Strife

Without spending a lot of money, a first gear start and pulling the timing resistor (and from then on, 92-93 octane always, only) helps a lot at lower, "street" speeds.

I just don't think the entire drivetrain is really built for high power; the flex disks are there, the transmission is kind of small, anything can be done with lots of money, but the cost/benefit ratio doesn't look very good. I suppose that if I were willing to spend a few thou, I'd look at AMG cams and exhaust work; but a lot of the exhaust benefits are high-RPM, and the cams might make a marginal engine fail pollution tests, and depending on where you live, this could be nasty.

I have the parts to do a dual-cold air intake air cleaner housing on my car; this might explain the mysterious few extra horsepower (again, at peak RPM) this engine has in an SEC; but I'll have to relocate/replace the windshield washer bottle and overflow tank.