[mazda77]

On the surface you are correct. They (NASCAR) are trying to do the same thing to Grand-Am in regards to it being more show with the go.

But what amazed me about the flat tappet engines is the entire lifter valley and the area above the heads are totally flooded with oil. One of the cars I did data for, and this goes for virtually all of the Ford powered TransAm cars, use this thing that I have seen 9600 RPM on the data and it wasn’t even straining. The regular roller engines cannot do that. I hear this is mainly a road racing engine package. At the end of each day the oil in those areas (~5 gal) has to be drained so it doesn’t leak past the rings and hydrolock the engine overnight.

[Ouderkirk]

I used to race supermodifieds in the 80's and it too just got to be too rich for the privateer. There was a time when you could buy a used chassis, build a good alky motor and a kinsler injection and be ready to go racing for about $40K and be competitive. Now you can't even get in the gate for less than $300K.