'75-76 Dart Sport 360, why hp so high?

You also might consider that what is released in advertising, is, well, advertising.The right advertising, they say, can sell snow to an Eskimo. Now, that's a snowjob!
I once had a 74 Dart Sport 360 4spd. You know, the one with the gutless 245 hp rating? I had slower 340 cars.
Suppose you had an engine that made 300hp at 5800. And it made 275 at 5400, or 250 at 5000. It's all the same engine right. But you could truthfully advertise that 300hp beast as a mundane 250 hp job, couldn't you?
Or what if you took that 300 hp engine, and sucked the timing out of it and it only made 285. Could you then advertise it as a 285 hp unit? Sure you could. Or what if it made 300 with a TQ, but you sold it with an AVS and it only made 275 instead of 300; would that be OK? Sure, it would.
I don't know about selling snow to an Eskimo, But I'm pretty sure the Insurance companies of the 70s got snow-jobbed,more than once.