I am building my way up to having the Edelbrock Performer engine:
Gottem:Cam, chain, intake, carb, fuel pump, nitrous kit
Needem: cyl heads.
Edelbrock gets a dyno proven 300hp at the crank (without the nitrous kit)
Think of nitrous as a poor-man cyl heads or blower
Nice thing about nitrous you can have a 300hp totaly drivable car and flick the switch for an extra 100hp and run with the too deeply geared, over cammed race cars at the track. When your finished putting the purest on the trailor (litterally) un-arm the nitrous kit a cruise the burger stand!
Cars are ment to be driven! I could put in a radical cam a loose convertor 4.56 gears and run similar times as the big dawgs. Or run nitrous, a mild stall, small cam and 3.55 gears and drive it all summer long ADVANTAGE Nitrous.
P.S Nitrous does not blow up cars, it's a chemical way of forcing more air into the pump. (like any other performance modification done to an engine)