I agree, to build a "Cool car " will no doubt cost more, lots of SBC parts out there.
We run NHRA Heritage JrFuel on the west coast and have won Championship with SBC and early all iron Hemi. Rules are heads and block must be iron.
We have run 7.0's to 7.20's at 185-189 mph with our Gene Adams orginally built 354 block [ lighter/stronger than 392] and 331 heads at 409 ci engine, rule limit was 410 ci, not its 430ci.
We broke a block in 2012, and it was tuff finding a good sonic tested machineable block. After maching we filled the block with epoxy , at Gene's suggestion, but it ran about 2 tenths slower, we and Gene could not figure it out because we only chaged the block, no other combo change. We discovered on the the second race that we had scuffed pistons, not in the skirt area bur in the wrist pin area
Our machine shop ran into a filled block problem before. Well it turned out the block was squzing the cyclinders, because when we raced it heated up and caused the epoxy to expand . So we put it in an oven until it stopped changing the bore size, then bored it again to get new pistons to fit.
BTW this is an all iron motor with stack injectors, zoomies, and a powerglide burning pure alky, in a 1480 lb FED with driver. We shift around 9200 and we have shifed at 9800, no breakage but I don't recommend that high. We run 31x12x15 Goodyears on 11 or 12" rims and 4.56 rear gears and a 1.69 first gear, with 7" converter, stalling at 7900 to 8400 rpm.
So now that I've given you all my secret combo, Good luck with your project. If you want to see us run the Hemi and hang-out with us, we are racing the 2019 March Meet next month, in Bakersfield Ca.
Cheers , Jon at Hayden Wheels 800-624-3803
I thought I would let you know what you might be up for.