Mike,
If you hang everything on initial timing, especially with NOS, you will very likely melt your motor. Initial timing is only relevant at idle right? How much time do you spend idling? Catch my drift? Yes, with a traditional distributor, adjusting initial timing pushes the whole curve up or down, but the curve itself remains constant. If you find the correct timing at high RPM/LOAD (by adjusting initial) then what do you do about the midrange? How about the low end? The fast guy's would then re-curve their distributor to optimize the timing everywhere. Why? because you just can't get there with initial timing.
With a stand alone system, when you adjust initial, the only thing that changes is idle timing. You must develop the curve. Do it wrong on NOS and you've got liquid metal
If this all sound like its not worth the bother to you, then I would suggest sticking with a standard distributor thats been curved by someone with NOS experience.
I'll bet an entire dollar that GrumpyVette can point you in the direction of just such a thing.