That reminds me of a race I attended in 1956 when the NASCAR rules allowed you to run whatever the stock displacement was (plus some rebuild overbore) at the Hatfield 1/2 mile track in NJ. That was the last year for the Packard and they had a 400 cu. in. V8 as a stock displacement and the Packard in the race lapped the field over even some Oldsmobiles and Hudsons, never mind the Ford Y-blocks, and then suddenly Packard was gone! Now SBC 400s are a fairly standard class and wish I had the luck to find a 400 for my car. I almost spent my college money on a 1954 Ford Y-block Sunliner but later I found out that the '54 Y-block had a lot of problems with oiling the cam and rockers so I guess I made the right decision. In principle the Y-272 looked pretty good compared to the flathead 239 or even the Merc 255 but maybe it was 1957 till the Y-block was sorted out so if you want a Y-block avoid the '54-'56. Just for the sake of my old pet peeve, you can recall that while Ford was messing around cleaning up the Y-block, they had rejected the ARDUN developed under contract to Ford! Gee I wonder how many years will go by before some rodders have a hard time finding parts for the SBC 350?
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder