Still don't get the love affair......

Saw an ad for Mast Motorsports advertising performance LS motors, and it featured the jerk I talked about that butchered a one of 458 Lucerne Blue 1972 Trans-Ams. He not only swapped in an LS motor and electronic six-speed automatic, he also extensively modified the body and interior. Anyhow-their big "Bargain" in the ad was that you could buy the same 575 hp engine that he had for $12,000. Huh?  First off the car had a numbers-matching 455HO- a stellar powerplant to begin with. Hemmings Muscle Machines followed the rebuild of a 455HO for another 1972 T/A. It was rebuilt with all stock parts, including the mild "068" cam and iron exhaust manifolds. It made 429 hp and 544 lbs ft of torque when they dyno'd it. That's the engine the car came with. If he wanted more oomph than that, a set of headers and a hotter cam would easily have added another 75 hp, putting him over the 500 hp mark without affecting drivability. Who really needs more power than that?  If you absolutely have to be "King Kong" Jim Butler performance will build you a 455 Pontiac engine guaranteed to have 600+ hp and run on pump gas for $7,500. So why on earth would you spend $4,500 extra dollars for a bastard engine that you have to spend numerous hours wiring up, if you didn't have more money than brains?  The better one was the 1990 Mustang GT with an LS in it. Whose the genius that thought this up? "I know, I'll spend double the money swapping in a Chevy that doesn't run any faster than it would with a 302 or 347 Ford." "Won't that be badass?"  What was this guy thinking? We've all seen Fox-bodied Mustangs that run in the 10s or even the 9s with 302 or 347 or 351 inch Ford power, either normally aspirated or with a blower or nitrous. And you've made the car sale-proof. Ford guys don't want it, Chevy guys don't want it, and the uninitiated are going "Why the hell would anyone want a Mustang with a Chevy engine in it?"  Like I've said-I see ten a day of them that haven't run 30,000 miles without a major repair so I'm not that impressed. Mastermind