Why does my car feel sluggish?

So Hopefully this will go a bit smoother:

Initial timing is set a 16 degrees, but it maxes out up around 40-42 degrees. Do i need an aftermarket distributor is there a way that I could modify that stock one to only advance to the correct range?

Also prior to this, i found a bit of a linkage issue, but thats been fixed. It looks like the previous owner was too cheap to buy the correct kickdown linkage adapter for the edelbrock carb.

Its ran/raced that way(first pic) for atleast 2 years, so i wonder if that bad linkage cause the car to eat the clutch packs and my tranny is slipping? The first pic isnt great, but basically the kickdown would only be moved at full throttle.