273, or 318?

66fs said

Because they are High Performance. If you have never had one, you won't understand. You can't make sense of it by theoretical numbers. People never sold them. Barracudas would sit and not be for sale because it had the Commando drive train and people just loved those cars for the way they drove, sounded, and handled. If you put all the good stuff in any small block, they will all run great. It does not matter whether it is a 273, 318, 340, or 360. I've had them all and built them all. Had my pick of all, and the ones in my basement are 273s, 340s, 383s, and one 440 with A-Body mounting bosses. Build what you have, it really does not matter.

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When was it NASCAR had a compact class one year. Chevy showed up with the 4 carb Corvair and Ford brought a 140 cube Falcon. They got spanked by the 170 cube Valiants with the marine intended Hyper Pac. A slightly hotter cam and bigger Holley 4 barrel and they lapped Daytona at I think it was 128 MPH. Those 61 and 62 Valiants were not exactly aerodynamic. With the short deck height the 170 is lighter than the 225, and could rev. The General and Blue Oval squad did not stand a chance, especially giving up about 30 CID. The Corvair got a larger engine with the 65 redesign. Somewhere along there Ford increased the six from 140 cubes to 170. The Ford had a real problem as the intake was a log cast into the head.
After Chrysler won pretty much all the races the first and only season, taking generally the first six places, Bill France cancelled the compact series.