I am purchasing the JLR Red Dot for my race engine. I am considering getting a secondary engine for practice. Since I am a novice, I know it will take me several gallons to get my skills up, so I don't want to put all that mileage on my race engine.

1. Am I worrying needlessly or should I get like an STS or some other budget engine to practice with? Call it a budget Novarossi Special edition 359 set.

2. How do you "match" engines? I would guess the Red Dot and STS D3 have different power characteristics so how would this effect the car performance?

In short, is getting a practice engine a good idea and should it be the same engine as my race engine (I'm awake now. Coffee just kicked in)