Originally, every ignition coil system required mechanical contact breaker points, and a capacitor (condensor). More recent electronic ignition systems use a power transistor to provide pulses to the ignition coil. A modern passenger automobile may use one ignition coil for each engine cylinder (or pair of cylinders), eliminating fault-prone spark plug cables and a distributor to route the high voltage pulses.


As with everything else when it comes to racing, small improvements can often lead to big results. Drag racing is an arena where hundredths and even thousandths of a second can make the difference between victory and also-ran. Coil tuning can play as important a role in quarter-mile performance as dialing in the carb jets and bumping the ignition timing around. Most people have never realized that the coil can be a potent tuning tool when combined with an MSD or other high-performance ignition. Spend some time at the track to find out what your engine wants, and like the pros, the benefits will be yours.