Missed on this combo?

Ryan Johnson told me years ago that if the cylinder head chambers were efficient and you had good quench that an engine wouldn't need a lot of timing and could run on lower octane fuel.

I like big tube/collector headers on 4" engines that are making some steam. I have Hedman Huslers with 1 7/8" tubes and 3 1/2" collectors on my Dart. My 408 had Edelbrocks ported by Curtis Boggs, Ryan Johnson freshened them and installed 2.055" intake valves, a 260/264 @ .050", ground at 106 in at 102, .627/.633" Hughes flat solid, 11.4-1, port matched Victor and a Bigs 950 HP. At 3260# with a 4.10 gear and a 325 radial it ran 6.57 in the 1/8 with a 1.38 60' on pump 93. It would run low 6.60's in street trim. BTW I shifted that engine at 6400, it ran no faster shifting any higher. Dave Hughes told me it should've been shifted around 7000 with that cam and that I was running out of head flow.

A 950HP can make good power, my 434 made 703 with the same 950 that was on the 408 with just a small jet change and down a couple thousands on the high sped bleeds. The 434 also made 30 more HP on pump 93 than Renegade Crate 98 leaded race gas. The carb was tuned for the 98 and no changes were made other than the gas. So higher octane fuel is not always a plus.

How good is the work on your Super Victor? From what I've been told by guys that do intakes is that the Super Victor takes a bunch of work to make it good and a ton of work to make it great.

It would be interesting to see the OP's engine dynoed with a bigger carb (even an 850 dp), 1 7/8" headers with 3 1/2" collectors and a port matched Victor. I think it would see a nice gain.