What is all this talk about taking the AC belt off before a race. What are the gains of this? Also, has anybody tested it yet?

 

All accesories are run off of belts that rob power from the engine. If you remove the AC belt, less power is needed to run the accesories and this extra power can be used to propel the car forward. The gains would be noticable but not worth not having AC all the time. I believe the fastest NA VE 5-speed had the AC belt taken off. Like so many other things with cars, it's the little things that matter the most. The AC belt is a little thing, but when added with all the other little things, it can produce great results.

 

I have done numerous studies on this and found it to be a very slight increase in power. Do not expect much more than 7 hundredths shaved off your 1/4 mile. But .07 is a lot for me. Like Cincy said, join that with reduced weight, advanced timing, and little other track ideas, you can see some noticable gains.