What would it take to make 1.44 lbs-ft per cid ?

Nothing special bracket race SBC 383.
12:1, ported World sportsman 2’s(flow 280), roller cam, cleaned up SV, 1-7/8 x 2 x 3.5 headers.

Cam A made 490tq/599hp(1.28/1.56)

Cam B made 478tq/588hp(1.25/1.53)

Cam C made 509tq/608hp(1.32/1.58)

Only the cam was changed between tests.

These cams were all big enough that you could have started reducing the duration numbers a bit at a time and the TQ/CI numbers would have gone up……until you reached a point where they were just “too small”.
If the goal were simply make the TQ/CI numbers go up, you probably would have found a point where smaller headers payed off.
I doubt that by just changing the cam and headers you could reach 1.40, but I think 525ft/lbs(1.37) seems within reach.
The negative side of that is it would have probably lost 30-50hp in the process.