My late wife bought an Olds Cutlass with a 350 Rocket V-8 and four barrel. This was actually a few days before we were married. I actually picked it out and convinced her to buy it instead of a Mercury.
She paid $500 down and I wondered how she would get financing as she had just graduated college and had no credit history. It turned out her Uncle was president of the bank.
I had an old 65 Olds Delta 88 with a 425, 370 HP. While the Cutlass was a beautiful car and handled really well, that old full size 425 was far hotter. Amazingly, it also got better gas mileage.
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Big high compression engines of the late ‘60s got really excellent gas milage.