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Interesting sidelight on another GM "edict" was the minimum of 10# per adv hp. On the 68 W31s, the title weight is 3250 and the advertised hp is 325 (surprise, surprise). That's not the peak hp as it was closer to 375. They spec'd it at 5600 RPM to stay within the edict, and anyone whose driven one knows there's a whole lot more all the way up past 6500. It also kept it under the 350 adv hp on the 68 442's to avoid a little more embarassment there.
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Dave, this also happened to the 67-69 Firebird 400's. Since the Firebird used the same 400 cube 350 hp engine as the GTO did, the lighter 3450 lb. Firebird wouldn't pass the 10# per advertised hp rule, so Pontiac underated the Firebird engine (on paper) to 325 hp. GM didn't buy this "fuzzy math", so Pontiac ended up installing a throttle stop tab on all 67-69 Firebird 400's to make GM happy, effectively limiting the engine to 3/4 throttle. The tab was very easy to remove. When removed, the lighter Firebird could easily outrun the GTO, a fact that road testers back then enjoyed pointing out.
Even when the 370 hp RAIV engine made it into the 3700 lb. 1969 GTO, it was rated at 345 hp in the 3450 lb. Firebird.
It must have been fun working at GM Engineering back then!
