When you index spark plugs, you use special washers so the open part of the plugs are facing in the same direction to aid in igniting the charge more efficiently. Drag racers do it because they are looking for every possible hp, but it is not necessary on a mild street engine. 32 degrees refers to the total amount of timing advance. If your distributor has 24 degrees advance built into it, then if you use a timing light to set your timing to the 8 degrees BTDC mark on the cam cover, you will have 32 degrees total advance. The new fastburn chamber designs make more power with less timing--GM's ZZ4 crate engines are set to 32 degrees. It is common for the older style chambers to make more power with more advance--say 36 degrees, but it depends a lot on the cam specs.