In an OCEAN of 5.0's I think a clean and fast turbo 2.3 would be sick and would get respect.
Check out this guy, Matt Culpepper. This car has tons of $$ in it but you can see that there is an aftermarket out there for 4 cyl Mustangs and they can go very fast. This guy stick shifts his 4 banger into the low 9's and is a great driver. The in car camera shows how much driving it takes to keep that car going straight.
Went to meet local club meet once. Was completely stupid. I was a kid too, 19 or 20. Bunch of people that had no idea what they were talking about but pretending. Everyone starts somewhere but they didn't need to be spewing non sense. That is pretty much the same experience at car shows for the most part also. I tend to go to a couple shows a year but that's about all I can handle. Going to your local dragstrip, there is a place to learn something.