quick 318?
It's not about respect, 318 can hold their own.
The rub is the power level you want is gonna cost more to get there with one, that's all.
You can build anything to do anything, it takes more time, money and effort with smaller displacements to do big things.
People prove this point with 4 and 6 cyl engines all the time. Engines are air pumps.
Take a look at 70aarcuda's build's sometime for pointers. Come into the chat and talk to him, he's there most evenings.