That's just the thing: rat rods are all about functionality, same as rat bikes. You have this thing, you don't give a fuck what it looks like, you just drive it. That was my childhood. A rat rod used to be a Porsche 914 with a poorly-hidden Hillborn-injected V8 in the back. Hell, I know a guy who would build fast CVCCs by putting a motor/transaxle in the front and the back and then link up the shifters and throttles. Now it's this twee fuckin' fiberglass t-bucket with a lovingly-restored flathead v8 in it. Gimme a break.

And yes - Honda pretty much made variable valve timing de rigeur. They came up with a way to do it pretty simply, so that's what everybody does. Makes a hell of a difference.

The MV Agusta F4 engine is the only production multi-cylinder engine I know of with radial valve symmetry. Know the difference between a wedge combustion chamber and a hemi? Thing of it is, hemis aren't actually hemispherical - they're just tented. The MV actually has angle-cut cams because the valves are splayed out in two dimensions. It's actually a hemi.