Vacuum advance mandatory for a street car?

Agreed with Kit's post. At part throttle, the advance is kicked in enough to give the engine a little extra. As mentioned, it will improve economy for a street car......and usually by a pretty noticeable margin. It will work regardless of vacuum signal at idle, so you can dispel the myth that engines with big cams will not work a vacuum advance, because they will.

You can certainly run without one, but why would you when running one WILL give you nothing but benefits? On a street car, there is absolutely zero down side to running a vacuum advance. People ditching them is simply one of those "race only" things that tried to migrate to the street. Some things can successfully be used from race to street, but eliminating the vacuum advance is not one of them. A street car will always be a little more efficient with one. Always.