"I once bought a new 1967 Mustang (after I trashed my mother's car).
200 cid engine, 3 speed manual transmission (of course), and zero
options. It was truly an economy car. "

I had a couple of Pintos. both stick. In fact that was when I started playing around with valve timing and learned quite a bit. then later Porsche or someone came out with variable valve timing. Whoever Ford bought for a while...

There are models that have not only vaariable valve timing but also direct cylinder fuel ijection. these are high end models and unfortunately with those you are stuck with their electronics, if you can call it that.

But I did notice things. Turn the camone way offf and you can slip your foot o ff the clutch in third and it peels tires and does not stall. however in NO GEAR wil it do over 45 MPH. Go the other way and you have to feather the clutch in, even in first gear, as if you were taking off in third. But past a certain RPM the thing would take off like a bat out of hell. So obviously making it variable is a good idea and I tried to work out some sort of mechanical arrangement to do so but I had no machines, not even a bandsaw, and I never could weld. So much for that.