I'm kind of late to the party, but I'm a huge suspension proponent. Sub frames, cc plates, urethane bushings, k member.brace. make it handle like a go cart.
Milled gt40p heads. 16 degrees of timing seems to be what it like doesn't ping going up to 18 but doesn't gain anything. When I had to the set to stock I could run 87 but it didn't perform the same and that's track proven for me my trap speed suffered from it.
Going from 16* timing to the stock 10* will definitely perform differently. Also depending on how much you milled your P heads and gasket thickness your compression was increased and you'd benefit from a higher octane even with just 12-14* timing.