5.9, max safe compression?

All good points.

I'll make the counterpoint that with running 12's or better on the drag strip with moderate compression (8.5 to 9, not 7.5), you only need a modestly wide torque band to do that. You put in a higher stall speed torque converter and rev 'er up to get into the torque band with that bigger cam and off you go. Fine for the drag strip. And I bet you found out that past a certain point, tire grip became a bigger problem to solve. IMHO, The NASCAR engine example is apples vs. oranges compared to what most of us are doing here; that only show what you can get with a given CR and PEAK HP, but it tells nothing about the torque band width.

Now, go road racing or rallying, and put a limited torque band engine in the car, and you get your clock cleaned by the guys who DO have wider torque band. GUARANTEED. For those who don't road race or rally, then it is understandable to not relate to this; it is a different world. The use of a higher CR in the 360 that IQ52 showed would allow it the keep the same torque at 2500, use a bigger cam, and thus that torque will be sustained to a higher RPM range......thus the wider torque band. If you are using a manual trans, in road racing and rally, it IS indeed a big deal.

On the street, just driving around, a wider torque band makes for better driveability. (I always look at the width of the torque band in dyno outputs.) Do you need that? No; plenty of folks are happy with a higher stall car on the street, but some are not.

So the application of the car AND what the user wants is what it is about, not just the best combo from this racing format or that. Sometimes it is hard to figure all of that out. I hear you on your assessment, Jim.

I think we are all doing the best that we know how because I have not run into any experienced person on FABO who does not sincerely care about how well things turn out for others, especially new folks to the game.