[Jeff Lee]

I went from 10.50's - 10-60's in D/S to 10.00's in SS with nothing but an engine & gear change. 100 HP is approximately .500 ET and that 100 HP should be obtainable over a Stocker engine; give or take.
I do have a short WB and that obviously helps but there are others going 9.70's - 10.00's with 9" slicks (look at Wann & Little with their SS/JA & SS/HA cars). My opinion is using a clutch makes it easier. You can tune a clutch for bad tracks better than a convertor. I would agree with Alan that a bad track and convertor would be more troublesome.