Driving hot rods with $4 a gallon prices--I love it, when I can do it

i just yanked the slant out of my duster and put a 400 and viper six speed. i had a local guy with a slant 6 dart laugh at me and mock me, tlaking about oh gas is nearing 5 bucka a gallon and you go and put this big v8 in. guess you wont be driving it too much.
well, the slant had the super six, recurved distributor and a good 2.5" exhaust. i only managed to get 18 mpg a few times with only highway driving. usually would come out somewhere between 14 and 16, and i think the speedo was reading faster so i think it was actually worse. i felt that it was in good tune, it ran really good.
now with the 400, i took it on a 3,000 mile road trip 2 weeks after getting it together and i got 18- 19 mpg on the highway tank after tank. the carb is far from perfect and my alignment was so bad it killed a set of good tires in those 3000 miles. i think there is a little more left, how much i dont know. i have been driving the **** out of it. if its nice out i drive it. i have a liberty and a hemi ram 2500, so out of the 3, as an added bonus its also the best thing i own on fuel. my dart used to get 8 mpg on the highway, i think it was worse on the highway that around town. i cant really imagine driving it so much right now.
if you want to continue driving your cars, start saving your pennies for od and/or efi. forget the next speed mod, actually id put those 2 things way ahead of a lot of other upgrades. if you cant afford to drive it, how is going to be any fun?