440 vs 360 barracuda

I think you can scare 'em a lot easier / cheaper;(edit; oops sorry, erase cheaper/easier and substitute "just as well"), with a little re-engineering of the current combo. Your manifolds and small carb are killing your 360, and the 3.55s are like tying it to a tank.
That 380 motor has a pretty big cam in it and the power peaks at around 5500, but the power only falls off a tiny bit by 6000. And Ima thinking it could go another 300 or 400 more after that.So lets call the 1-2 shift at 6300, which drops into second at 4540; yeah that looks about right.
But I bet you are short shifting it at maybe 6000, and dropping into second at 4430rpm, and the power there is about 350; look at the dyno-chart.
The thing is with 3.55s, 6000 is 53mph., and now ;
With only 9/1 scr and that big 288/292/108 cam in it, the cylinder pressure is about 131psi @ sealevel and the VP is a mediocre 104. When you stuff it into second at 4320 the engine will struggle a bit to get back up on the cam.
And therein lies part of the problem
For performance in my streeter, I gear it to hit the power plateau at or near 60-65mph. This means that you will go thru the power peak twice and annihilate the tires. Well, with the Caltracs maybe you'll just ET stupendously well.
So what gear is that"
Looking at the chart I pick 5700rpm as the trap;and with an 85" tire roll-out, I get 3.82gears for 62.5mph; so round up or down to 3.91s or 3.73s, depending on how much you wanna scare your passengers. The 3.91s will get you 5700=61mphin second gear.

But the biggest problem still remains which is the 104VP/131Psi cylinder pressure. This leaves an awful lot of room for improvement .
Between the low-compression, the no headers, and the small carb, I'm betting you could pick up the possible 350 hp you now have to 400hp easy enough, and the torque might go as high as 440.
With 74degrees of overlap, that cam loves headers. I'll guess you are loosing over 25hp with logs, and another 10-15 in the small carb. That puts you at about 340 right now, assuming the exhaust is free-flowing. If you install the parts that were on the dyno engine, and actually get the 380, then a pressure boost to 160psi, would probably get you another 15hp. Not much but about the same as the next bigger cam. The difference is that the next bigger cam will gave away some more bottom end, whereas the higher compression will boost the power everywhere especially in the lower rpms. Is it worth it? IMO only if you can do it with gaskets.
But the real gains come when you swap to Aluminum heads and are able to run up at 190psi
The current combo is advertised at 9/1, and that should get you 131psi@104VP@ sealevel
The hi compression iron head version would be at 161psi@128VP, with 10.6Scr.
The aluminum headed version would be 179psi@[email protected]
At 140 you will finally have a powerhouse engine that with 3.91s will be a dump-it-and-go deal, no more slipping the clutch out and sounding like an old 5.0 Mustang.
Happy HotRodding
Oh yeah, at 400hp you won't, rather, I wasn't , looking for any more hp. 400 on BFG TAs is flippingdangerous.