Auto Racing: 32 valve vs other valve engines, combustion chamber, symbals

Question
i have been driving for many years now and on many cadillacs i see the 32 valve symbal on the back of the car. my moms intrepid ( a 24 valve DOHC rocket) is has the same symbals (24 valve, DOHC). which essentially equate to 4 valves per cylinder. and i recently got an email about some LSx heads (GM) that have 32 valves.

my question is whats up with the valves per cylinder and what do they have to do with going fast?  

Answer
Richard-

 There's a lot of reasons why 4 valve heads work better, but the short answer is that they're more efficient than a 2 valve head.  To have the same breathing potential of a 4 valve setup in a 2 valve head you'd have to basically make 2 huge valves.  The problem with that, among other things like just fitting them in there, is that it would greatly reduce the velocity of air entering the cylinder.  Airflow is key because the more air you have, the more fuel you can burn and the more power you can make.  Also, a little more generally goes into engineering a 4 valve head so you'll usually have better port designs and better combustion chamber designs which all help promote better combustion and increased airflow which, again, both help increase power.  Hope this helps.

Steve