hrm, never heard of that ladder bar problem. but, i only personally talk much with a handful of people that run 8's. most of the nicer cars are around the 10's. street cars, in other words.
haven't heard about the new ford 800 inchers. but, then again i honestly don't pay a ton of attention to the mopar motors either. we don't get to rebuild a ton of motors around here, since probably 70% of our clientele is ricers. unfortunately we have to compete with the likes of speedway motors. the gearheads in this area are very entrenched in their ways, and there are a lot of good hotrod speed shops around here. but no import shops to speak of, besides a stereo shop that claims they're the shit for speed parts. if, by speed parts you mean a fake cold-air intake and altezza tailights.
i'm much more familiar with the chevy builders, like lunati and ligenfelter. if i remember right, lunati was #2 in pro street to hit 200mph in the quarter. i wish he would have been first, he was hitting 198, but not cutting it. he's got that sweet-ass "street legal" green '68 camaro. the first one to hit 200 (201 to be exact) was "the ghost" - a white 95-ish fuel injected camaro. i think that guy (can't %@#$ remember his name now) was one of the few "pioneers" of sorts to use fuel injection in p/s as well. lunati doesn't to this day, i don't think. sad, they should
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i think a ford guy was the first to use the turbo setup though. there were 2 first cars using turbos, a 95-ish stang and a '57 chevy. can't remember which one is first. i've been around computers too damn much lately
i couldn't imagine driving a 2000 horsepower car though, like a lot of the 696 chevy's are. what a rush. someday, i shall be strapped behind such a monster. maybe the cavalier. the original idea was a metro hatchback, but that was way too gay, and the cavalier i can drive down and meet the ricers. see if they'd be dumb enough to race. believe me, they are.