I could give him the X on that claim because he's just making stuff up. I had a '75 more door, as well as '74 and a few others for a quite a while. They're not 17 second cars! Given enough time and road they can hit 100 mph though...
I've been at the dragstrip when 318 powered cars (with 4bbl) were having trouble getting out of the 17s.
Sadly my '68 Barracuda with 225 lost a rod bearing on the way to work one day. I didn't get to drive that car very long before that happened. I've always wondered if I hadn't done an engine 'flush' it would have lasted longer. Good gas milage and peppy throttle response on that one. Then some greenhorn (me) started to fix it up...
(Its possible that car could have got into the high 17s)