RACE tunnel rams are for higher rpms. they have shorter, bigger runners. The tall tunnel rams like the ones in summit and jegs and poking sky high through the hood are street rams. They have longer, thinner runners good for torque and bottom end. Ironically, the only real driveability problem is cold backfires on startup.

The street ram is basicly a stock intake with the runners straightened out and up (except they are singleplane, not dual plane like a true stocker)

Hood clearance is why they have low, curved runners on stockers. Ever see the 50's and 60's big mopar cross rams? the carbs were either ON the valve covers (short ram) or OUTBOARD of the valve covers (long ram). these were torque monsters, but couldn't rev past 5 g's if you paid them.

when you say stroker for low end, it's a generalization (pretty good one, though) if the heads wont flow high rpm levels of air, with a cam that's matched, then a real race ram will be a turd down low, then not have enough motor to use the intake. but put goooood heads on it with the right cam and now its a screaming power house. this is the more expensive way to build a tunnel ram motor.

It's all about a matched combo. use a stroker with non race heads and a street ram and you could have a torque monster that doesn't need to be revved past 5 1/2 or 6 grand. this is a pretty affordable way of building a beast. no need for spendy heads, cams.

so the questions are: Full race or streetcar? And will the budget support a big inch, high rpm build? I'm speaking in engine generalities here and admittedly don't know of any mystical ford recipes (all brands have a few) but that's my Engine Tech:101 speech.