Bill,
Mine was essentially stock with the timing bumped as far as I could and still run smooth. I also hacked out the four (yes, four) cat convertors and straight piped back to a dual outlet muffler. My car saw 7,000 rpm nearly everytime I sat in it and never complained. Once, I missed the 2-3 upshift, hitting the side of the gate with my right foot burind in the go pedal - I buried the tachometer, which read to 8,000rpm. It never shook, sputtered, smoked or came apart. Once the revs got back to around 6,000, I grabbed second gear and went on. Oh, and without the cats, it could belch flames out the tail pipes at will :-)