Tony M, I agree with you, start out with something reasonably suited for fast road work if you wanna go fast.
But these guys are taking hot rods here, a long history of making a mundane vehicle high performance, at least in a straight line.And while I like 6's, there ain't nothing like a big inch American V-8 trobbing under the hood.Most guys I know with built engines do it for bragging rights, they never explore the limits of performance, which is probably good.
Anyway, a few years ago I was working on a friends 68 Camaro, big V-8, lots of power, had mucho fun spinning the tires and slamming gears.My friend finally figured out I was done with his car, but keep making excuses to work on it cause I was having fun.
