yeah.. silly fun.. that is! I mean this in the most literal sense.. different strokes for different folks.. is what this kind of swap is all about. Also depends greatly on what your individual interpretation of "fast" is all about too. Some aren't fully content with a low 12/high 11 second car and like to have that extra reserve of.. "I'll kick your $100,000+ euro-trash ass if you mess with me" left on tap. If I didn't want to road race my car eventually?.. I'd have gone with a stroker BBF in a heartbeat. Tons of parts availability.. 700 horses at very low rpm's and gobs of off-idle and cruising speed torque on tap.. what's not to like about that? I could have opted for an only slightly more expensive aluminum BBF block over my aluminum SBF block and set the motor back AMAP and not many cars would be slicing around me in any corners but the packaging and exhaust design gets tougher to deal with. So I compromised even though I fully realize that the fun factor and my right calf muscle will need to work harder to keep me pinned back in the seat. Speed costs more cash but also comes with more compromises too. Just the way it goes and we must all choose our own personal level of compromise that we want to live with. Look.. I'm not saying that anyone who stuffs a motor like this will be racing around corners on the local road course any time soon. And not many would build such a combo and assume they could do that anyways. But.. I will say that most people would be and ARE surprised as what a bigger/stickier front tire combined with a stiffer 750lb front spring and thicker swaybar will do to the overall driving impression while tooling around corners in a spirited manner. Will it match the capability of a small block with similar combo(w/ 550-650lb spring)?.. nope. But up to the max limits tooling around public roadways in "spirited fashion" it is FAR better than people are giving it credit for. I know this to be fact because I've been in dozens of similar combos through the years. Lost count for early Mustangs, a few MII's, several fox bodies(in fact, these combos are STILL popular and some have moved to stupidly powered forced induction setups too), falcons.. hell even Ranger pickups(and imagine how nose heavy that combo would be on paper!). Some should keep in mind that back in the 80's and early 90's this was a VERY popular swap because the 351W parts availability was not anything near what it is today(we were still hunting for D0 Windsor heads to port) and it was easy to plop an extra 15o lb/ft of torque AT THE WHEELS.. into any chassis that would allow it.. or didn't really matter enough to worry about chopping things up just to make it fit. The combo is well proven and yes people can and do drive faster than 20 mph around sharp corners with them. Plus remember that an aluminum headed/induction/tube headered BBF is not worlds heavier than a completely bone stock all-iron 302 as you would think. So, there's that too.
