[Jeff Lee]

The problem with turbo cars is the staging and launch with an auto trans. The racers that have these do so either because they are not willing to drive a stick or believe that you need to brake stall and balance the brakes and boost level while staging for"maximum boost". That's all well and good but I'll tell you that as soon as you drop the clutch on a turbo car and put a load on the engine / turbo, that the boost gauge climbs faster than the tach needle. So if you have the engine set for 20 PSI boost, it's there instantly. I suppose that's assuming the car will launch properly.
With an auto trans they make every effort to stage without over-riding the brakes while trying to obtain a certain level of boost; most likely less than maximum boost especially if the engine is heavily boosted. Then you hae the transition from launch boost to max boost. All of which leads to launch consistancy problems and ET will suffer accordingly.
The problems I had with consistancy would be attributed to the racer (me) playing with the car, naturally that would be inconsistant. Also, things like blowing off vacuum lines or having not enough fuel and melting heads & pistons. That also made the car inconsistant. But most of the time it was as consistant as anybody else's car at the track.

Regarding the comparrison to a 350 TPI and a 305 TPI, addmitedly I have never messed with one. And I don't know and won't even bother learning all the specs that seperate the two. However, I feel confident that ANY Stock Eliminator should produce in excess of .75 HP per CID with regard to NHRA factored HP levels. Do the math on any engine out there and you'll see that .75 is extremely conservative. An AMC 390 with an anemic Autolite shows 292 HP. A 302 Chevy shows 226 HP with a good carb. A 427/425 shows 320 HP with a good carb, same even if it was a 427/335 small carb. No regards to equipment, only cubic inch and it's only a starting point.
Now I'm reading the 305 / 350 TPI is basically the same other than CID. Stands to reason the 350 is underrated if accessed the same HP factor. But by how much? Since the 350 TPI racers have apparently held back performance showings and the 305 TPI racers have apparently shown their potential, you have something to go off. Assuming the 260 +/- HP on the 305 TPI is reasonably accurate then I can't see an argument for keeping the 350 TPI at it's present level. The question is how much? Then I believe an arbitrary number based on the CID difference is acceptable. Remember these two engines are in the same class.
Really good stock engines produce in excess of 1.25 HP per CID. I can't imagine any well thought out / well built engine in stock that only makes .75 per CID. Maybe a few but not the norm. Or use .50 per CID. Doesn't really matter. There just should be some basis for assigning HP factors as obviously some are trying to skew the averages by asking others to lay down and play dead.
Sorry to offend, but this is supposed to be a performance based class, not a statistical average class.