I seem to remember that in general, a cable operated throttle body of a given bore, we'll say a 58mm will flow better peak numbers than a 58mm TBW. Is that the case? Or maybe I'm not remembering correctly.
For the sake of argument, lets assume they're both HPI models.
I can't imagine why.
What I think I read was that the TBW throttle plate may not be open 100%. I can't find where I read that, so I want to see if any of our tuners can confirm.
I can't see what controls the throttle blade affecting this. TB not hitting 100% will affect flow bench numbers but if it can open up enough to get all of atmosphere pressure into the cylinder. It's not a choke point, and does it really matter? I pay attention to KPA more than actual blade angle.
I got the choice this winter if I wanted to run cable or electronic on a max effort build. TBW for the win because of the control over things.
I forgot about the detail of kpa coming into play when tuning, as well as throttle blade control. As you mentioned it's not a strictly air flow number to win.
Maybe I was remembering this from something I read regarding Twin Cams, the OEM differences of the factory TBW being 50mm and the cable TB being 46mm.