Dave, great insight. Thank you for your input!
Interesting to note, in 1969, the tables appeared to have turned, according to Milt Schornack's book. Milt Schornack (Royal Pontiac) brought their 1969 Firebird 350 to an NHRA race, made one pass, and shattered the national record running deep in the 12's. Dale Smith was there with a handful of the factory backed W-31's, including the Smothers Brothers Team. Schornack said that Dale walked over to him, looked at their Royal Pontiac Firebird, and said it ran well, but they were in the wrong class. This was the 350 cubic inch class. Schornack assured Dale Smith they were in the RIGHT class, it was a 350 powered Bird, and they were ready for a teardown. Smith walked over to the tower, raised a stink, and using his clout, Schornack and Royal Pontiac were booted. The official reason was that the 1969 350 H.O. Firebird was not a production car, and not enough had been made. Schornack and the boys loaded up their trailer, and drove back home. That's the way it goes sometimes. They traveled 12 hours, and made one pass. Schornack had their 350 Bird into the 12.0's, and said they could broken into the 11's quite easily, but in mid-1969, Royal Pontiac pulled out of dealer backed racing.
As for the 1949 Cadillac/Oldsmobile debate, it appears that all over the web (except for on Olds sites), credit goes to Cadillac for developing that engine.
As for multiple carb setups, I always thought it was interesting how Buick was able to produce 2x4 setups for their Rivieras, when Pontiac had abandoned their 2x4's by 1964 in favor of the tri-power. Pontiac wasn't too thrilled with the 1967 multi-carb ban either, as their entire GTO image was based on the "3 deuces" theme, and their other full-sized performance cars (2+2, Grand Prix, Bonneville) all had tri-powers as options. But it figures, Chevy got the special treatment.
