if it was just for economy they would not be on the performance cars. and the new vettes are still performance and they have spark advance on them. my friend has a hellcat and that has spark advance on it. so spark advance is not just for economy it is also performance. i watched the advance on the hellcat ahd saw it move for both normal driving and when i put it into performance mode. thanks bp

 

I think you're conflating mechanical advance and vacuum advance. I agree that mechanical advance is for performance, but vacuum advance was strictly for economy. You can run without vacuum advance and not see any difference in how the car performs.