I drove a '69 Z28 many times with the DZ302, my old friend and room mate liked to party more than drive so I often was the nut behind the wheel. lol
They're plenty fast but don't have near the grunt especially low end torque of a 427 with a similar build such as the solid lifter cam and hi performance heads and high compression.
I found the 302 lacking low end but it was a great performer as you said above 4000 rpm, it could burn rubber but you had to get her wound up and dump the clutch.
That thing would rev well into tomorrow and that's where you'd want it to bang gears in it's high rpm happy place.
My 427 also in a '69 Camaro on the other hand was a little choppy at real low rpms like just off idle mostly because of the big solid lifter cam and that single plane intake.
That said idle was about 1200-1300 rpm and anything above about 1600-1800 all you had to do was mash the pedal and she was up in smoke and you'd better hang on and steer because all hell was breaking loose. There was no need to dump the clutch with that torque monster.
Crappy old pics of Gary's Z and my '69 from back in the '70's.

 

Are they not good memories?

 

Mostly, there were a couple crazy nights I'd just as soon forget. lol

 

The cam is a roller so no need to break in the cam, use conventional oil for a good ring seat. Carb spacer shouldn't be used. Good info from Everett and Y2K...