Power advantage between Ford 351, Mopar 340 and Chevy 350??

crackedback said
You know the manufacturers would sometimes roll in with a "ringer" car to do magazine testing.

One thing that always stands out, Mr. bastid points out, the mph on the lower HP 340 compared to the higher rated hp chevy. those chevies must have weighed a bunch, or they were overrated and/or mopar underrated the 340. :)

70 LT1 Z28 4.10/auto car ran something like 100mph and 14.2ish in the 1/4 during a test IIRC. About the same as the Mopar posted earlier in the thread. Hmmmm

340s were overrated. Back in the day NHRA re-rated them at 310 gross HP for stock classes up from the factory 275 (from what I've read and seen, I wasn't around then lol). Also if you look at the drop in HP from gross to net in 1972 the 340 "lost" a lot less HP than other engines. Went from 275 gross to 240 net while engines like the 440 4-bbl went all the way from 370 gross to 280 net. Chevrolet tended to overrate their engines' power, if I remember my "history" (old racing stories) correctly a 396 Chevy rated at 325 HP was no match for a 340 A-body at similar weights and probably even if the Chevy had a weight advantage.

One engine I wish had more road-testing done is the Buick 455, gaaahhd I love those things. I will own a Buick with that engine some day, whether it's a Riviera, Skylark/GS, even an Electra. TBH my top dream classic car right now is a 1967 Riviera with the 430 BB, first year for that engine platform. Or a 1965 with the later BB swapped in. Mopar never made anything quite that beautiful or built as well unless maybe you got an Imperial.