If we go back far enough, performance was derived from a flat-head 4-cylinder. A bit later came the flat-head-6. Upscale companies started offering straight 8's and even 12's. Sometime in the late 1940's Over-Head Valves started showing up on a regular basis. By the mid-50's ChryCo was killing it with their Hemis. Of course bigger cubes crept in each model year, bigger carbs (and often, more carbs), and so forth. In the 1950's, several versions of fuel injection made its way to showroom floors. One could argue, "Yea, but at least these progressions ran on gas."
Though not as prevalent in the US, Diesel powered daily drivers were popular across most of the world through the '70s into the 2010's. Americans would balk at "Diesel performance", but much of the rest of the world was blown away by the Audi Diesel (1st Diesel powered LeMans winner).
In 1981 electronic fuel injection hit the new-car market in a big way; and got bigger and badder every year afterwards. Heck, by 1986 some cars didn't even have a distributor! I was selling AllenTestproducts Engine Analyzers at the time and can assure you, many older mechanics retired over the whole electronics thing.
Part of me wants to stick with the cool "tried-n-true" old-school stuff (please do not exclude the awesome 2.2 Turbo offerings from the 1980's), and part of me realizes "New does NOT mean bad; just ...... NEW!"
Electric IS coming. I probably won't live long enough to actually buy one, but nevertheless... My grandkids will more than likely marvel at the antiquated petroleum powered cars much like we view horse & buggy and straight flat-head 8's today.
Like many of you, I have longed fondly for precious memories of the 1970's when I could ride in the back of an open-bed pick-up truck, cars could be bought for $75 with 1/2 tank of gas, 3 good tires, and 4 months left on the inspection sticker. As a lover of history, I realized the golden Roman Empire is dead. Perhaps the 1960's and 1970's are on their way into the history books, like the Roman Empire. Are we just getting old?!?