Many years back at the drags doing idle mixtures on a 429BBF, as it smoothed out the idle a little with the mixture nice i had a bystander tell me "watch it 60' slower next run, you've adjusted *some of the cam* out of it" !!
Another total classic, i had an VE R8 hsv in , ls engine twin turbo all legal emissions the lot, strong internals but smooth stock like idle making 534rwkw, so a lot of fun to drive! ,, at the same time i did some work on a cammed up 6.0L VE SS, absolute pig to drive, bucks , snotty, slipping the clutch to get away at the lights, 3rd gear at 60kph as 4th on light coast it is just crap, owner told me it made 330 something rwkw but i doubt it, owner of the bad ass sounding SS heard me start amd move the turbo R8 and says " nice car but pity about the stock engine, he needs a real cam , if i see that at the lights I'll give him a real shock with my SS" !! I just politely said yes yours certainly sounds pretty grunty !
Cam sound and idle note is just so important as pose value to some drivers, if its not cammy enough their mates rib them, its a status symbol which can make it really hard sometimes to talk someone around to fitting a smoother sounding combo even when you know its going to outperform their mismatched overcammed "pub mate combo".
Craig.