Highly doubt it, I'm pretty sure one of those chev engines had a VE of a 116% so he was getting air in, I'm sure the Dodge was similar and you don't turn a 371 to like 8000 rpms without moving air. Hp is mostly airflow.
Efficiency ain't everything, we live in a world of cheap relatively inefficient hp, you could easily out do these engines in a afternoon with a catalog and a credit.
Pretty sure I've read it and others from the local library, when I was 12, probably make more sense to me now.