i believe the single most driver for single carb technology was NASCAR. by the early '60's they outlawed multi-carb. this brought about the large holley carbs like 3bbl and dominator plus manifold technology upgrades. for street guys this was really driven home by 1965 375hp 396 chevy (396 cuin's was a nascar thing). there were large afb's and even a 3bbl afb but they simply had some air flow deficiencies compared to an 850 or 950 holley. another driver was holley developing the center pivot float bowl that handled G forces better than carters. i'm pretty sure all this major developement with holley was funded by ford.

Good points.

for most people it was a simpler path to performance. there were very few people in the '60's who were carb smart especially multi-carb; i know i was there.

We certainly agree on that point. And I'll add, it hasn't gotten much better today.

as far as my belief the multi carb thing can be and is in my builds more versatile is that i can run on small primaries for better fuel mix and still have larger venturi and throttle bore area for power. i think some of this is a perpetual discussion that most people have picked sides long ago. the "common culture" in this matter baffles me.

Isn't this a little bit like the auto vs stick discussions? The bottom line is not necessarily what is technically the best given that there are so many other factors affecting the outcome. Maybe not for you, but certainly for most 'average' car guys. And the vast majority of us have to make some amount of compromises on this. Otherwise, we would sure see a ton more tunnel rams sticking out of hoods. And I am not arguing that singles are superior to multiples, only that there are many, many factors that come into play in each situation. Some of which end up having nothing to do with creating the perfect induction system.