I just chuckle inside whenever i see those pissing matches.....it's funny how people can be so driven to lie about the pettiest of things. I'm all for friendly competition, but it's cringe inducing when this happens, especially in person. It's worse in the minibike communities though, so i'm at least thankful that its not as bad as it could be.
I personally love reading into and studying and hearing about people's setups, because i'm just curious and it's fun to read! I've tried quantifying gains before, seeing what my trap speeds are at set distances from a starting point before and after modifications. It's not super scientific and probably not all that accurate without calibrated equipment, but it's still fun. I've posted about it in my threads before. I wish more people would do that.