Ken,
Are you trying to "call me out", or are you just good at reading magazines and "history"?
You should know, I've been buillding engines for over 30 years (as a professional, not a hobbyist). I've built them all at one time or another. I raced my GTO at the track and on the street, relentlessy from '72 through '78 when grown-up responsibilities began. I got beat occasionally, but a LOT less than I gave the beating. Not once, did a 428-powered (Ford) ANYTHING beat my 400 GTO, and I raced many. A couple of 390-powered pony cars (Mach 1 and Cougar, one each) gave me among the best runs I ever got from an FE. 427s were MUCH stronger, but simply too rare to consider. Most of them were in more expensive "race" cars and at the track every weekend. Us "poor folks" did street racing. The 429, on the other hand, is a GREAT engine.
It's true, in A and B/SS at the '68 Winternationals, the 428 Mustangs did well. Today, they're in "C/SS" because the developements of the "Hemi" made all others obsolete at the "A" level. We see one here and there, but not a popular racer. Too valuable as a collector car, I suspect, not unlike the Chevelle SSs (REAL ones) and GTOs. The Hemi cars that remain "unmolested" are also too valuable to race anymore. The ones that still do are older cars "kept up". There was one GT-500 running in B/SA at Indy last year. Went out in the first round.
My point here is to be sure the ground you're on. While it got rave reviews, the 428CJ never lived up to the "hype". The stroke was too long for the head design and the rod bearings are too big to really rev it. The relatively short stroke in the 390 and 427 made them MUCH better for performance (rod/stroke ratio and rod "angle"). 428 was originally developed as a "big car" engine. High in low-end torque, it made the better T-bird engine of the late '60s.
We've done one as recently as last Summer. It's in a '69 Torino GT, and is VERY nice. It's still a sled, though. We also did a 454 (427 block, 428 crank) about two years ago. It was a MAJOR torque monster, but the owner couldn't let go of the "rev" thing. He blew it up in short fashion. Large rod bearing, cast crank, 7,000 RPM... NOT a good combination. 428s are best left stock and geared "up" like Pontiacs, to take fullest advantage of all the torque (like the Pontiac...).
This is not to dispute anything, just to clarify with some "real world" experience.
Jim