Interesting responses. On the sand cars we run a crank trigger but do not use a cam sensor. You can run the crank trigger off the dampner in the front. Also, once we tune on the dyno, we pull and plug the o2 sensor as it is not used. Most everyone used to run electromotive and has now moved to Fast. A long time ago we used Haltec with distributors but found on the same engine, significant hp and torque pick up with coil packs. I still need to understand how you can have as much control with a distributor over coil packs especially when it comes to limiting rpm and shutting down the engine in cases of temp,
oil pressure and other issues.
With respect to looks, I suspect FI in no way looks like an original carb setup and the coil packs can be hidden. A set of 8 coil packs is 180 bucks so I am not sure how that is more expensive than an MSD spark box and a distributor set up.
In any event, thanks for the input, I am thinking of building a car but need to do more research.