you just said that you basically didnt see any difference between hand built and assembly line- well here is a pic of a car we just finished building:
puny small block thats a 289 stroked to 347 with AFR heads and Weber 48mm IDA carbs making 430 Hp and 440 lbft. son dont tell me hand built and assembly line doesnt make a difference- now I know that this is an extream example but it illustrated the point.