If you tell me you have a .509 cam in your engine, I'm going straight to the Mopar catalog to find that it is a 292/292.. This may be a poor example, cuz everybody recognizes the 292/.509 signature. But you get the idea.
Actually this may be a perfect example. As a youngin reading my Dad's Car Craft magazine, every feature with a Mopar invariably had a Purple Shaft cam. If Mopar Performance cams were commonly identified by lift, then I could see how it could get ingrained in the community as much as "four bolt main and camel hump heads" is to the Bowtie crowd.