I do see your point in the first paragraph, so I can't argue it isn't possible to occur. However just to clarify on my next two points:

I said: You want your spark to happen such that maximum cylinder pressure occurs right as the piston is starting it's down stroke. If it happens sooner (piston is still on upstroke) it will ping/knock.

You said: Because the flame front takes a finite time to propagate through the charge, ignition must occur before the piston reaches top dead center.

I agree, I said you want *maximum cylinder pressure* to occur at this point, not ignition itself. As you said there is a delta time between the two events, which is why ignition normally occurs before the piston reaches TDC

I said: My test results would seem to agree, as the chip making more timing accelerated faster.

You said: Timing may not have been the only cause for better acceleration. How about more boost?

I think you'll agree that more boost is meaningless unless it produces more mass air flow. Normally more boost = more mass air, but not the case here based on my MAF recordings in these tests, as in the higher RPMs the two chips had similar MAF flows even though one made more boost, therefore that part was 'equal', with timing being the difference, so that is why I feel it is likely that timing was the variable responsible for the extra power.

Incidentally I suspect the reason this happened, is in the mid-range the higher boosting chip (which flowed ALOT more mass air in this range), thus heatsoaked the IC faster, such that by the higher RPMs, the intake temps of the chip with higher boost negatively offset any potential mass air gain. In fact above 6500rpm, the lower boosting chip flowed MORE mass air

2000 6-spd