Engine Choices for '59 El Camino

My buddy’s big brother back in 1958 acquired a near new 57 chevy with a 265. He had it bored to 301 (?) and installed an Edelbrock 3-2 manifold with an Isky full race cam. Only other mod was a truck clutch to go with the three- speed manual trans on the column. That thing would do 65 mph in first gear and get rubber at each upshift with symphonic noise. Was a real sleeper (baby blue with stock rims). MUY surprising to the chopped and channeled 48 Mercs then prevalent. You usually couldn’t see your opponent becuase of the rubber smoke back there.

I forgot to say. At top speed the speedo needle buried itself in the radio - at least as far i could see from the back seat.