STOP!!!! With what's "Correct" or Original!!...For the common good....

I hate to be such a cynical, miserable, sarcastic bastard all the time, but people drive me to it. Got an email from a guy who wants to buy one of the five 1970-71 BFG "Tirebirds". If you don't know-when B.F. Goodrich introduced the Radial T/A-they also sponsored some Pontiac Trans-Ams to run in the SCCA Trans-Am series. Jerry Titus and Milt Minter won a few races in them. I've touched on it before-the cubic inch limit in T/A racing was 305 inches. When it started in the mid '60s-Ford ran Mustangs and Chrysler ran Barracudas-the 289 Ford V8 and 273 Mopar did nicely. Then Chevrolet upped the ante with the Z/28. They took a 327 block and put a 283 crank in it and made a 302-with all the goodies-Corvette "Fuelie" heads,11:1 compression solid-lifter cam, etc-Mark Donohue and Roger Penske won the title in a Camaro. Which caused Ford to counter with the "Boss 302". Herb Adams and other Pontiac engineers wanted to play-and since SCCA rules allowed de-stroking-they built a 303 inch Pontiac engine with "Tunnel-Port" heads like Ford was working on. In testing they found the small engine ran better with production heads, so that's the way they went. But the 303 Pontiacs had a lot of expensive one-off parts in them, and they blew up a lot. And after DeLorean got promoted-( He allowed Adams and others a lot of slack when it came to racing and "back-door" stuff ) the factory support dried up. The SCCA ruled that since Canadian Firebirds had Chevy engines, it was legal for privateers and others to run the much more plentiful and more reliable 302 Chevy engines in Firebirds. So the races that Titus and Minter won were done with Chevy engines!  Anyhow-this guys question was what would be more "Correct"-should he try to find a 303 Pontiac-which would be IMPOSSIBLE. The last "Real" Pontiac V8 was produced in November 1977. They stockpiled a bunch of 400's for '78 and 79 Trans-Ams. The 303 program was killed in 1969 when Delorean left. That's 45 years ago. Herb Adams and the other engineers are long retired-and the tooling is long gone. And 45 years ago they had a lot of one-off, custom parts-they de-stroked a 400 Pontiac to 303 inches. Moldex and Hank the Crank made custom 2.84 inch stroke cranks to go into the 400 blocks and they had custom connecting rods that were longer than 7 inches and custom pistons-standard Pontiac Rods are 6.625 inches. They had RAIV heads-which are exceptionally rare and prized-Edelbrocks are exact replicas-but their not "original". So even if he had Donald Trumps bank account-the chance of getting a running, 303 Pontiac at any price-is nil. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning. Then he asks-should he try to find a "DZ" code 302 Chevy?  My response-and I don't think I'm being an asshole here-was put a crate 350 Chevy in it and have fun at track days or vintage car races. Or if your super-anal and "Gotta Have" a 302 Chevy-GMPP sells "Bowtie" Blocks with a 4 inch bore and 3 inch storke cranks, so you could build a 302 Chevy if you wanted to. But it's not going to have 1969 date codes!!  How do you restore a non-production race car to absolute "Originality?" Think about it-this car started life as a 1970 Trans-Am. The original engine was an RAIII 400. However-the cubic inch limit in the racing class was 305. So the "Original" "Just as it left the factory" shit is out.  How do we know with absolute certainty-what this 44 year old race car-was originally equipped with? Was it initially built with a 303 Pontiac and had a Chevy engine swapped in it later? Or was it built with a Chevy from the start?  Who gives a f%$k? No one keeps records of vin numbers or how many engines a race car has had!!!  Enjoy it or don't, but stop agonizing over this non-issue!!!  For example-Richard Pettys legendary '74 Charger initially had a 426 Hemi in it. Then when the big-blocks were outlawed-they went to a 360. However-the last "Factory" Hemi Charger was built in 1971. So if someone wanted to restore Petty's Charger-should it have a 426 Hemi in it or should it have a 360 in it?  The same with Fords. Ford built two Boss 429 Cougars-one for "Dyno Don Nicholson" and one for "Fast Eddie" Schartmann. Like with the Boss 429 Mustangs- they started life as 428 models and were sent to Kar Kraft for the "Boss" conversion. However- since these cars were never sold to the public-they were race cars from the start-if someone bought it and wanted to restore it-should he put a 428 in it or a Boss 429?  Dyno Don Nicholson ran a Boss 429 Maverick in Pro Stock in the early '70's. We all know Ford never made a Boss Nine Maverick. So how would one restore that?  First off-Old race cars are money pits!!  Secondly-they were RACE CARS!!!  There's nothing "Original" on them from day one!!  If you can afford to play with one, enjoy it, but don't agonize on it not being "Original".  Mastermind