To quote the Dsport article:
"The Pulstar with PlasmaCore spark plug by Enerpulse features a high-purity ceramic capacitor that stores energy until it is ready to spark. In this configuration, a Pulstar spark plug can deliver greater and larger spark energy than a conventional spark plug. According to Pulstar, this allows for a spark with an incomprehensible peak power of up to 5 megawatts. To put this in perspective, 1 megawatt can power up to 1,000 houses. This is an incredible amount of energy that is said to break apart the gaseous atoms of the air-fuel mixture into a plasma state which results in a more instantaneous ignition, leading to a quicker and more complete burn. In theory, this method of combustion should result not only in increased efficiency in the ignition and fuel systems but also make way for more power to be generated during the power stroke."
To quote David Vizard:
"So as to put everything into perspective, let's start off with a simple basic ground rule as far as ignition systems and the Series 'A' engine are concerned. The Series 'A' engine, what ever type it may be, is not overly sensitive in the ignition department. As long as the spark is adequate to fire up the mixture effectively no further improvement in this area will be necessary. A super spark which falls into the artificial lightening category, does very little to actually increase the power output."
He basically says that an adequate spark is sufficient for maximum power output on a series 'A' and goes on to talk about how important spark timing is and that this is what it is better to throw money and effort towards improving.
He does say however that it's worth worth increasing the spark intensity if you wish to run very lean part throttle economy mixtures as a bigger spark can ignite leaner mixtures although he still puts a big emphasis on the ignition timing. It'd be interesting to see a specific fuel consumption test on a series 'A' with the Pulstar plugs to see if there's any improvement in this area. Vizard reckons a relatively small gain of 2 to 3% in economy can be achieved with a better spark. (That would be with the mixture and timing optimised, not by just changing the plugs.)
Another thought regarding the Dsport article. If the use of the Pulstar plugs results in a "more instantaneous ignition, leading to a quicker and more complete burn" then the ignition timing of the vehicle will no longer be optimal as the timing will now effectively be advanced from where it was.
