Agree. This would be the best use of your money. However I did note...
Swapping carbs to go to the track is a PIA. Would you really want to do that to gain what, a couple of mph? If so, OK? But either way if you're going to do any retuning with the current carb, then do it first and check the manifold vac to see if there's really any decent potential in a larger carb.
Also. Since the only changes you made were intake and exhaust, the timing should not need anything else. So if you want to start learning. This is a great time. I posted some starting points for tuning on and off dyno a couple threads down - you can skim through that.
They have advantages and disadvantages but in principle, the work exact same way.
I just checked that ad out. Unfortunately that's not a good build. If you want to pickup one, get an early one, and preferably one thats not been modified.
Here's a great place to start. Learn to clean to clean 'em and put new gaskets in. There's really no reason why it should have clogged due to a restoration other than portions of fuel turns to varnish over time. The rebuild will cost you time, some gloves (get the black ones), carb cleaner and some gaskets.
Re: Electric choke. Is the current carb setup with one? I ask for two reasons. Automatic chokes can be a pain to set up with hot cams. This is made worse if the carb doesn't have choke 'pull off". This the vacuum actuated partial opening of the choke once the engine is running. Also our cars didn't come with electric assisted chokes - so that portion will need to be wired in if it hasn't been.
