A "350" A-body might be just the ticket for you......

Everyone wants blood and a first-born child for GTOs, SS Chevelles, 442s and 400 / 455 GS Skylarks. However-you can still have a hot "A" body-for a lot less money than people want for the premium big-block models. It's partly supply and demand. For example in 1968 Alone-Chevrolet produced 58,000 SS396 Chevelles. They also produced over 400,000 base model Chevelles and Malibus. Now some of those are 4 drs and wagons and some El Camino sales my be thrown into those figures. Even still-there's probably a 250,000+ 2 dr base models out there. And that's just one model year of one car. The same goes for the other lines. There are a lot more base-model LeMans / Tempest, Cutlass / F85, and Skylark / Century models out there than there are GTOs, 442s, and GS Buicks. Throw Monte Carlos into the mix, and there are literally tens of millions of cars out there built from 1968-77, and a lot of them have 350 cubes under the hood. Here's how I'd rank them. #1. 1968-77 Chevelle / Monte Carlo. These are the obvious 1st choice, as there is more speed equipment for a small-block Chevy than anything else on the planet. # 2. 1968-77 Olds Cutlass. Of the "Other" 350s-i.e. non-Chevy-the Olds has the most potential. Its a big-bore / short stroke design and there was a factory high-performance version-the vaunted "W31". There is good aftermarket support. Edelbrock claims 397 hp and 400 lbs of torque from the "Performer RPM" package. Magazine writers spout numbers flippantly, but believe me-400 honest hp will make any street car into a rocket. # 3. 1968-77 Pontiac LeMans. I didn't include Gran Prix's because all GP's had 400 cubes standard. 350 Pontiacs respond well to traditional hot rod tricks-4bbl carb and intake, headers and dual exhausts, mild cam, etc. There was a 350HO package available on Firebirds and Tempests, but like the W31 Olds cousins, there pretty rare. The small bore / long stroke design gives them great low-end torque, but limits them in two ways. One is the big-port, big valve heads used on the 400 / 455s-that are needed to make serious power won't work-the valves will hit the block. Two-that big, heavy crank ( the same as a 400 ) is the reason these engines often go 150,000 to 200,000 miles on the street without a rebuild. But it limits rpms to 5,500 max. What to do is just accentuate what Pontiac did to begin with-make big torque at low rpm. With the proper cam, and carb / intake combo you can make 325-350 hp and 400 lbs of torque pretty easy. With an axle ratio between 3.23 and 3.73 and that would put you in the 13s  easily. But you won't make 500 hp like you can with a 400 / 455. The upside is, if you need that much power-a 400 or 455 is a bolt-in swap. Pontiac V8s are externally identical from a 326 to a 455. #4. 1968-77 Buick Skylark / Century.  Unfortunately for Buick fans, there isn't much speed equipment out there for  350 Buicks., and unlike Chevy, Olds, and Pontiac there was never a high-performance factory version. Edelbrock doesn't even offer a Performer intake for these engines. ( They do for 231 V6s, and the 400 and larger V8s ). Unfortunately if you want a stompin' Buick "A" body-your going to have to swap in a 400-430-455-which there are aftermarket aluminum heads, intakes, cams and other stuff available. 350 Skylarks make nice drivers but there just isn't the speed parts out there like there are for the other three. ( Chevy, Olds, Pontiac). But you can save thousands over the premium models. Mastermind