I spoke with Kent Ritter about this subject just last week. My engine builder is recommending that I go to a crank trigger on our next build . Kent said that is was not necessary for my application . My car is a low 9 second braket car with an alcohol carb.
When is it ever “necessary” ?
It's necessary when you are pulling a lot of timing out (nitrous/boost) to keep the rotor phased or when you have a very timing sensitive combo that you're running on the ragged edge.
Good point about rotor phasing. That is one big benefit of splitting the distributor from the timing pickup. With a crank trigger and a belt drive distributor the rotor is always exactly where it needs to be regardless of what the timing is doing.
