I agree with Mike - money with some more just in case.

There's a soft cover book I picked up the other day on building engines (Border's is closing and my kids gave me $$$ worth of gift card) . The work that goes into building a high level engine defies my imagination, most of it machine work.

What I would like is a 'new' NA$CAR engine that can live at 8-9000 RPM for hundreds of miles

(Your link wouldn't open for me)