[Hagen Gary]

If I were building a motor, it wouldn't be a old 396. You can get a Crate Copo motor straight from Chevy. The 396 rated at 390 went 9.84 at indy in a stocker, straight from the factory plus a tune weighing a min of 3560. You can get one complete Throttle body to pan for $25,000 and weigh a min of 3290 in GT/AA. That's 270 lbs less, so now you are somewhere around a 9.55 on a 10.10 index. And that's in stock trim at Indy where the weather is terrible. That's a .60-.70 under car here before you add in anything you are allowed to do in superstock. Not to mention you'll probably be able to get 200 runs without even thinking about taking it out. I really don't think you will be able to build that old motor for the same price and have the same potential to go fast. I might be wrong, Trumble might be able to build you a 1.00 under motor for that price. But then it would be living on the edge, unlike that stock motor.