Difference between lobe lift and pushrod lift

MrM:
Strictly from a layman's point of view, I think you've aptly summed up where most people make their biggest mistake when building a street / mild strip engine. It has always been my contention that torque is produced by the engine, while the final horsepower figure is ultimately determined by the heads. As you stated, once the heads have been configured for the power level of the engine, it's then time to pick the other components to complement the heads, with special consideration going toward camshaft selection.

Terry:
You gave a very good example of matching the cam to the particular heads in a race engine. Most of us street-and-sometime-strip warriors never do get to this level of tuning, mostly due to lack of expertise on the subject of head/camshaft matching, and partly due to the fact we have to draw the $$$ line somewhere. Most of us either do our own head work, or trust our machine shop to the job for us, and seldom do we have the luxury of flow testing the heads then trying different cams until we find one that gives us the maximum bang for our buck.

BRJ:
I was with you at first - what's he trying to say, and how the heck does this apply to my street 360 with the "J" Heads and MP cam. It was beginning to hurt my head - no pun intended - until Terry gave the track example, and then it all became clear. If you're after the last 1/10 in the quarter, then I guess it all makes sense when trying to make your final determination in camshaft selection.

O.K. I'm getting off the soapbox now. :)