I didnt say there were any benefits Karl, I just pointed out that engines can be ran at very high BHP/Litre outputs with a higher than stock CR... Like Stu's CVH for example.

IMO Stock CR is probably spot on for the average person wanting more power, there seems to be enough headroom for good gains and without sacrificing power off boost by lowering CR.... but this is where I'm confused, you said earlier that a lower CR will produce more torque? Could you explain this please mate as I always thought the opposite.
A higher CR will produce more power (bhp) and that is calculated by bhp = torque * rpm/5252 so surely it must be producing more torque?!

"A high compression ratio is desirable because it allows an engine to extract more mechanical energy from a given mass of air/fuel mixture due to its higher thermal efficeincy. High ratios place the available oxygen and fuel molecules into a reduced space along with the adiabatic heat of compression–causing better mixing and evaporation of the fuel droplets.Thus they allow increased power at the moment of ignition and the extraction of more useful work from that power by expanding the hot gas to a greater degree."

But all this aside the OP's question was is a CR of 9.0:1 ok for his ZT build with a target BHP of 300... I still think this is ok... I could of course be wrong.
What are your thoughts?