360 vs 383

This is a good comparison. IMO, both were pretty much dogs from the factory because they were saddled with small hydraulic cams and heavy pistons. I have direct experience driving thousands of miles behind both engines in essentially stock form and I can say with 100% certainty neither were very exciting. Similarly, both run out of air just over 4,000 rpm but that's mostly the cams fault (again, in stock form). I'm not sure if there is a slight torque advantage with the 383 but if there is, it's minimal at best.

In general, I'll take the 360 due to less weight in the front especially in an A body. In a B body I'll take the 383 mostly because a big block fills up the engine bay better. Small block B bodies just don't seem right, ya know?

For me, unless you build either one to rev the piss out of it, both are best when stroked, at least on the street. Don't see half as many stroker 383s out there but there are plenty of stroked 360s. I'm not sure what that says about either engine but there must be something to the fact that people tend to ignore 383s more than 360s.

I built a mild stroked 383 for a friend a couple years ago. It did OK.

438" on the dyno

Race engines are obviously a different story. I'm not going to try and find the current factors/records for each in NHRA stock eliminator but that would be the best measure of their capabilities in non-stroked form. If I had to guess I'd say the 383s might run a bit better but that depends on the combo and class. There's probably stout examples of both.

Maybe old magazine road tests would shed some light on the subject. There was only one year where both were in production at the same time so it may not be apples to apples.