The costs for going 8s vary depending on how much work you do yourself and your timeline.
I would say that Steve's $70k figure is not unreasonable if you drop the car off and pay somebody to gut it, do the motor, trans, rear, fuel system, electronics, IC & plumbing, cage & safety gear...
People have done it a lot cheaper..and cut a lot of corners. I have seen several 8 second cars at the Nats without adequate safety gear, stock rear ends, Powermaster brakes (how'd you like to blow a fuse in that sucker at 150 mph?).
It's always cheaper to buy somebody else's finished car. I have seen some 8 second capable cars up for sale in the high $20k range. I am building a fairly serious car and I don't have much money in it, but I have done
everything myself, I'm ridiculously slow to finish it, and there's no guarantee I won't blow it up before it runs a #.
Of course, even if you pay somebody $70k, you can still blow it up.
Edit: Cal was driving his car to work as late as last year. Of course, he only lives a couple of miles from work and I am pretty sure the car stayed on race gas..still cool. He brought it out to the Autozone at BG either last year or the year before. Since the parachute was still on, nobody was having any.