Still not right.
The uneven firing is from the firing order chosen by the people that make the cam. The cam determines when the valves operate and so the firing order. So some V8's need a balance (crossover) pipe and some don't.
Lumping them all into one general type isn't the full story.
And by 'keeping the stroke short and using light pistons' does held the secondary harmonics .... it just moves them further up into the rev range before they start getting harmful. They'll still be there at lower revs but not enough to hurt the bearings.

OK, I don't know from experience myself, so I'm just going by what every independent source I've read says.

So, why would Ferrari, Formula 1 teams, Ford, and other companies put so much time, effort and money into developing them if they didn't offer some sort of advantage in performance? I have a hard time believing it's just for the sound.

I'm not a Ford guy at all, but this is a sweet looking car.
725hp Mustang

There's a slight performance advantage for racing. It won't make the slightest bit of difference in a road car.

Here's a short walk-around video:

In it's first racing appearance, the GT350R-C qualified for pole position:

http://racing.ford.com/series/road-racin...ut-weekend.html

My next car will be a hot hatch. I'm looking at the Focus RS or Hyundai Veloster Turbo.

Oooh, I like the front end. Very shark like.

Gotta hide this thread from the wife. She says she is a "sports car woman," but that's just her avoiding what she really likes - muscle cars.

Check out the quality of the Veloster interiors first, like give everything a good man feel, especially the door handles and other plasticy bits that will creak after a bit of usage. Drove a few turbo ones and they are ok for what they are and look pretty flash in that matte gunmetal colour, wasn't impressed with the interior though as it felt like it would fall apart rather quickly.

Does a bear sh/t in the woods ? Does the pope wear a funny hat ?? Is water wet ??? The same question and answers apply to Australia.

"I see you have one of the last V8 interceptors".

Yeah from reviews I've read the Veloster is a unique car but not much of a hot hatch power or handling wise, I'd definitely look at the Focus RS or the new Civic Type R or even Audi RS3 if you want the power and handling without looking too extreme.

damn Z28s are hard to beat