To be honest when I got back into the sport I wasn't really too bothered about big or small block (come to that I would have considered a ford or chrysler). The car I bought had a BBC in it ready to go so thats what I had..
At this point I should explain that racing over here in the uk is a little different, read that as being probably about 2 1/2 times more expensive but still quite good value for us Europeans.
I run in a bracket from 6.3 to 8.99 (1/4 mile) and to be honest thats where it ended up first ever run was a 9.7 easy pass and once I'd done a few it ran regular 8.5's. Now as we don't get the chance to run as much as you guys do, my choice was to make it go as fast as I can, I just enjoy driving the thing....
I've seen some pretty big $numbers up there in this post and as far as I'm concerned it's all about making what you have work..
I won't change my combo now until I get the car into the 7's, and that will be on a single carb and racing gas, I've got a killer engine in my shop waiting to be built and thats where it will sit until I get where I want to be.
This car ran 8.200 @ 160.odd on a 950 cfm 4150 carb, I'm sure it will go 7.90 @ 165-8 with the dominator on it, I'm looking at taking weight off where I can. It's easy to buy power (big or small block) but I think it's much more satisfying to make your stuff work and last, mind you I think I am going to have to rev it past 7000 to do it. I also ran 8.1 soft pass first run of this year so the signs are good (having a year out to get a new workshop built, my lifes a logistical nightmare) so I'll only get a few chances to run as a demo car at one of our 2 tracks.. If I don't get the 7 then I'll leave it in for next year..
When I get where I want to be then I'll put my 540 olds in 200lbs lighter and probably 300 horsepower more, alky injection should liven it up a bit.. I'll then set my target for that combo, it'll stay that way until I get there and then the only thing left is to fit the 14/71 and see where that goes..
In summary big or small does not really matter (and for the guy with the inline six, the number of cylinders is not an issue either) it's making what you have work to the best you can, rest assured friends you can be king of the hill at your track but sooner or later someone with a wad of cash will come along and go quicker. Best you don't try to keep with him, set your own goal and stick to it or it's going to cost some big money..
one thinhg I've noticed is a lot of the small block guys spend a lot of money trying to make them into big blocks, I went the other way I tried to get my big block down to a similar weight to a small block, retaining the torque that it will give oh and when I build it I'm going to rev the T**ts off of it, so in effect it will be a big small block with the advantages of both..
Have I promoted any one or the other? who knows it's just a friendly opinion..