Ultimate daily-driver Gen II A Body to build

I know a 170 would need additional work to run higher RPM, but I'm pretty sure I've heard that you can turn one to 8000 RPM without a huge amount of work (urban legend?). But, really it is pointless if you can't make it run clean (and efficient) at lower RPM's. But if you could, I still think it could be a killer deal, even if it only made 300-350 hp, but got 28-30 mpg.

Oh well, I'm not going to build one as that is really the only way to truly answer the question (can't afford what I have now without starting down a different road), but it's fun to dream.