Here ya go f1ux, your education begins. In particular read the bench racing and piston comparison & nitrous oxide articles under the "technical stuff" heading.
http://www.kb-silvolite.com/1toc.htm
there will be a quiz
lots of very good, although sometimes kinda technical information out there. Read all you can ... listen to the folks on this message forum ... think about it logically add it all together and you can start to come to your own conclusions, which is very important since a large part of hotrodding is opinion.