Dyno...Whats up????? Rwhp???

[420nitro]

Lately I see alot of people talking about "having your car dynoed" and "how much RWHP do you think I have"? Whats up with this?
I know they are great for tuning and if you are using them for a reference point only! I believe people are starting to get way cought up in how much power there cars make at the rear tires!
For an example, couple of years ago when my local speed shops got there dynos, it was like this god sent device for all of us racers. When in fact all it caused was frustation!
My friend and I had street cars that made some power. His Trans-Am made 318 horsepower at the rear wheels on motor. Then it spiked up to about 423 horsepower on the spray. My car was completely different. It only made at best on the dyno 294 horsepower, 384 with the spray. At that time I had to here all the **--ing time that how Trans-Am cars rocked and Fords were slow!
So one weekend we went to the track (thinking I was going to get smoked, because its the first time out with our combo's. His best pass was a 12.46@108 mph. My car ran anywhere from 12.21-12.15@109.5, What gives? We both have torque converters that stall at about 3400 rpm, same gears and tires, so you tell me. His car weighed in at 3550w/ driver and my weighed in at 3250 w/driver.
I believe it was all in the chassis work and having the right parts! Owe yea, by the way I went out the following week-end and blow off a 11.98 at 110 after retuning the car. (with no dyno) On the spray it went 10.86@122mph.
Now all I am saying is that people just maybe need to lay off on how much power there car makes at the rear wheels and just run there cars!!! 500 horsepower at the rear wheels don't do sh-t if you can't hook up!
I also understand that manual transmission will show more horsepower at the rear wheels for the same ET'S, because of less drive train loss. But it also seems that people don't know that race cars with loose torque converters will show alot less horsepower then somebody with a tight torque converter.

Let me know what you guys think. Are we starting to get carried away with this or not?
Thanks