I agree with you on post cars instead of hardtops. Back in those days wind noise was terrible in a hardtop. My first car was a '55 2-door post - 265 power pack. I modified it and just about ran the wheels off that car. In the late '60's, we knew how to get to about a two mile section of brand new six-lane highway that was not yet opened. A bunch of us would go down there regularly at night and drag race. One night, I'm running against another guy and pegged the speedometer at 110. It started waving back and forth like a windshield wiper. After that, it didn't matter if you were doing 2 MPH or 80 MPH - all it did was wave back at you. Wish I still had it.
In addition to photos above, I had a '65 Ford truck that also had a 327 Chevy drive train it. (Didn't want to post the photo because there is a person in it. I'm not inclined to do that without permission.)
Don't have time to do it now, but if you'll rattle my cage, I'll tell you an interesting story about V-8 engines in '57 models from the factory.
Regards