17th Aug 2013, 18:17
I guess you have the government to thank for that...
4th Sep 2013, 15:10
The reasons that the 455 Olds was down to only 195 HP by the 1976 model year, were because dual exhausts were no longer available by then, the carburetor was set to run very lean, and the camshaft was very, very mild compared to the high performance cams that the 455 Olds got from the factory in prior years. My experience with that engine was that when it had dual exhausts, adequate carburetor jetting and a really good high lift, long duration cam, it would be putting out close to twice the power of the 1976 engine.
17th Aug 2013, 11:34
Horsepower has only a little bit to do with pleasant driveability - that is all about TORQUE, and even the 'smog strangled' big-blocks of the mid-to-late-seventies had excellent very low RPM torque. Thus - pleasant to drive, unlike the revvy things nowadays.