Distributor or magneto for the most power

By design, the distributors timing advance mechanism provides better performance at part-throttle, full throttle and anything in-between. The closer to stock the engine is, probably the less important this advance mechanism feature is. Many times I'm under a speed limit and only run the engine at 1200 RPM and keep increasing the RPM the farther down the track I go. Other times I may be at full throttle all the way, but end up lugging the engine down to near stall before spinning out. So, what I'm saying is....no mag for me.

I agree with Dr Allis and  Dave. Although I will add the get the best performance with a distributer a proper working charging system is a must. Without correct voltage a distributer will have the proper output. This is where a magneto would be the choice, where a tractor had the charging system stripped off for weight. With that being said I remember seeing a few old timers years ago at some pulls (back wen tractors from the 30s were considered farming tractors not antiques) that knew how to play with the mag advance lever to get their tractors to lug down to next to stalling and keep on pulling, whereas others would fall flat as soon as the RPM would drop to about half speed.