Amals, Strombergs, SUs: FEH!!!

Picky, picky, picky. *^)

Of course, AFAIK, there's no quality control on the DGV series at all (and the Volvo manifolds are pretty shoddy, too)...

Quality control is left to the buyer, for sure. I paid close to $900 for a new pair of Weber DCO/2SP sidedrafts that I had to go through and correct a bunch of problems on. I've gotten pretty good at porting shoddy manifolds so they have some semblence of smooth airflow, epoxying up pinhole leaks, etc.

but I have in my posession a DGV and manifold from a long gone 1800 which don't suck nearly as much as usual.

The DGV can be made to work decently, no doubt about it. From where I sit, it's a choice between thirty minutes getting a good set of SUs to tune in the ballpark, or many, many hours getting a Weber (of any model) to tune really right. They do not come that way out of the box.

For most people, I still recommend SUs -- but only if they are in really good condition. Once they are put into that condition and are set up once, they require very little attention. You just have to accept that they make excellent barometers and rarely going to be spot-on, but they'll stay close enough to run well.