I hate to be devil's advocate-but for god's sake I've got 50 years of experience....

I get so tired of hearing about "Gotta Haves" in buff magazines and from idiots who are only quoting them. For example-people talking about 4-bolt mains and stel cranks, and screw in studs and roller rockers, etc. I know people that had 283 Chevys bored to 301 inches or 289 Fords tha regularly ran them 7,000 or 8,000 rpm with a solid-lifter cam with no problems. Small-Block Chevy's didn't get 4-bolt mains untilm 1969. I know people who have raced small-block Chevys for 40 years-and I have never seen a stud pull out of a head. I've seen broken pushrods, jumped timing chains, but never a stud pulled out of a head. I've seen stock Chevy and Ford Rocker arms last 2 whole seasons in an IMCA race car without failure. "Pontiacs aren't high revvers." It's true that the basic head design-except for Ram Air IV's and Edelbrocks don't make much power above about .480 lift, and the bottom ends don't like to go 7,000 rpm. But I know may guys that run 400's to 6,400 without trouble, 428s to 6,000 and 455's to 5,800 with no problem. And if you have 500 lbs of torque from idle on up you don't need to rev to 7,000.  "You need a single 4-barrel to go really fast." "That's buff magazines trying to make everyone idiot-proof. Multi-carbs didn't go away because they didn't perform-in perfect tune a 426 Hemi or 409 Chevy or 421 Pontiac with dual quads can really rock. As can a 389 GTO with Tri-Power or a 427 Corvette with Tri_power or a 440 / Six-Pack.  Porsche and Ferarri enthusiasts prefer the carburated 911S and Ferarri 308 models over the fuel-injected versions. Datsun 240 / 260 /280Z restorers prefer the dual or triple Weber setups to fuel injection. Single-carbs and fuel-injection came into vogue because of ever-tightening smog laws-not lack of power. People don't know how to tune them. I've seen it. Guy restores a car and it's never driven more than on and off the trailer. Or if it is, he's so god-damnded afraid of blowing it up that it never sees the high side of 3,000 rpm. The second it fouls a spark plug, he starts screwing around with the carburators. Pretty soon it won't even start. If your going to drive like grandma on Prozac, then go a range or two hotter on the plugs to avoid fouling. If you do decide to go the drags, a plug change is an easy fix. The other is driveline beef. In Summit's catalog-their new T10 4-speeds have a like a 325 lb or 375 lb torque rating. That's absurd. 1960's muscelcars like 409 Impalas, 421 Catalinas, and 406 Galaxies used T10s and had way more torque than that. The 421 had 459 lbs ft, which was under-rated, the 409 had 425 lbs ft,-and the '60's versions had much softer gears than the modern versions!!  I hate that every single magazine project car has to have a Brembo or Wildwood brake system worthy of a NEXTEL Cup or Formula 1 car. A buddy of mine raced Hobby Stock and Pro Stock circle track for years on a '70's Camaro with a stock brake system. Even on a 1/4 mile track running an 8 lap heat race, a 25 lap semi, and a 50 lap main event back to back to back-we never had brake fade as long as we used Ferodo or Bendix Metallic Police-spec D52 pads, and Dot 5 fluid. Even at the end of a 50 lap main-with the rotors glowing red-the car still stopped. I just get tired of self-proclaimed "experts" who don't know shit, giving advice.  Mastermind