well im going to speak from only a little experience here...currently building my 71 scamp and have done ALL the work (except the paintjob) myself and have almost all the parts already and there is definatly way more than 1000 bucks into it...speed costs money because you need reliability and power, and when things break you need money to replace, and when you want to go faster you need more money for that...its a money pit, but its definatly a better drug than anything else out there in my opinion...and an 8 second car in the quarter is a beast as you obviously know, but even an 8 second quarter mile time is fast...take it from experience- when you make your first pass down that drag strip in a v8 car, even if you pull off a high 14 second et, your gonna feel like you just hit godspeed lol so dont worry too much about it all...i say have fun, build it as funds allow, and maybe win some cash bracket racing to fund future upgrades...good luck!
p.s.- you chose the best form of motorsports in my opinion!