You and I have traded emails before.....
I thought long and hard about staying with a stock 351W or stepping it up a bit. What finally made my decision was going on a cruise with some folks here in So Cal as a passenger. After talking to them and hearing what they would do different if they were starting over - the first thing out of their mouth was 'should have done the engine upgrade'.
I ended up going with a 351W stroked to 396. It should put out somewhere on either side of 450hp. I made that decision about 2 months ago. Since then, I have run into numerous Cobra owners and other car folks that made me feel better about spending the extra dough. For roughly $2-2.5k more, you get more HP and likely some good upgraded engine components.
I have seen it posted several time before on the forum and I now tend to agree - "If you are going to put extra money into anything upfront, make sure it's your engine"
BDR #127 is in customs right now. After some body work, custom paint and finally the engine install, I should be on the road 1st or 2nd week in April. Not sure what I am going to do until then, but keep dreaming about driving my car....
Good luck and congrats on the new BDR purchase.....!!
- Snak Iyz