Hi all. Hoping to get some perspective and input. I just recently purchased an 02 Z06 with 43k miles. It has been over a decade since I've driven anything bordering on performance inclined (child=suv) so I don't have much of a frame of reference but it seems to run pretty well. I took it down to the dyno last week and while they were able to get a number of 355rwhp on a pull they could never get a clean run. They tried many things, including swapping plug wires but it kept dropping rpm readings. They gave a call to the shop tuner (who wasn't there) and explained the situation to him. His over the phone diagnosis was knock sensors acting up as they tend to be overly sensitive/timing can be overly aggressive on the 03-04 Zs. So it was a bit of a bummer and had me contemplating a tune on a stock car (which was distasteful) since it'll be early next year before I plan on doing long tubes and a cam. Also, I haven't taken it to the track, enjoy my auto insurance rates enough to not be street racing and after my long layoff, I didn't really "know what I was missing". Well, skip to the weekend and I'm out running around with my buddy who has an 09 335i. As we're merging onto the highway he decides he's gonna pass me on the side and after a full day of him trying to get a run out of me I finally cracked and appropriately accelerated to maintain my position. Imagine my horror when he (no better of a driver than I) matched/slightly bested my second and third gear performance.

It'll probably be a few weeks til I can get it in for a tune and embarrassingly, I can take it no longer. WTF?,lol. Can an over sensitive knock sensor really add the equivilant of a full second to a quarter mile or is there something way more rotten in Denmark?