Carl,
For what it's worth, I think you are on the right track with the naturally aspirated decision. That 12.5 you mentioned (above) was a high altitude pass (with
my wife driving as STINKER so often likes to mention
) and will drop substantially at a sea-level track.
My point is that decent naturally aspirated power production isn't hard to find these days and, as a side note, my Q.C. (all 5600 pounds of it) is NOT (with the exception of the drag radials) even setup as a drag vehicle. Still, I am able to pound on Viper CARS from a roll and at the track. And all of this happens
without power adders. Granted, some tweaking to the Viper and the situation would be reversed but the truck weighs TWO THOUSAND pounds more than the car and pushes a LOT more air. More tweaking to the truck, I win again- blah, blah, blah..What I am trying to say here is you don't HAVE TO use power adders to try to get good performance out of these trucks as I'm sure you are aware..
But, it also depends on what you think "good performance" is.
To a guy running 10s, vehicles at my performance level are turtles. I had some kid in a turbo Skyline blow by me at 126 about 50 feet before the traps...unreal! I think that is where the term came from:
"Like I was standing still".
Often assumptions are made that if a Viper truck is supercharged, it HAS to be faster than one that isn't.
Here is something to think about...
6.571 seconds at 210.21 mph
NATURALLY
ASPIRATED (New N.H.R.A. Pro Stock Record). Kind of a tongue-in-cheek example here but...you get my point...right? Freakin' amazing for something without power adders of any kind! 500 cubic inches.
There are MANY ways to produce power from an engine and some will choose one way, some another. Is one way "better" than the other? Who can say?...
I guess it depends on what
YOU want to try out...and arguments will go on forever...
Personally, I expect a
LOT of performance out of an engine that someone has added a supercharger to. I don't always see it...
I think it is super cool what you have done/are doing with your truck (auto and all) and I hope it ends up being exactly what you wanted, whatever your final decisions end up being.
Ronnie