Since you pretty well covered what goes on under the hood here is an interesting bit of info:
On a slow 5.0 sec run say the motor averages 8000 rpm for the entire run...it makes only 667 revolutions, and since there are only 4 power strokes per revolution, it only makes a total of 2666 power strokes or 333 for each piston.

We've all seen a piston go up in smoke as it gets holed on a run. Ever try to burn a hole (melt a hole) in a piston with the average gas torch in the shop??. Think you can do it in 5 sec??? try it and see. Many are burned thru on a run at the 3 second mark. Gives you some insight to the heat produced in the cylinders.

When we were going down the road match racing we used to dump these things on each other like bad jokes.