Solid lifter big block Chevys?

[lloyd3]

An early former co-worker passed about 10-days ago and while dealing with his passing I found myself in a text conversation with another associate from that era. We ended-up also reminiscing about our cars and related adventures from back then.  His fast-car days experience was with a 1969 Chevelle packing the solid-lifter L-78 396 motor. He claims it was rated at 375-horse, even with an automatic transmission (which, upon checking, it appears that he is correct). He also claims that it had plastic inner-fenders and was very-rare (which is likely true as well as I've never come across another one before). Most of the 396-equipped Chevrolets I encountered then with my 383 (and 440) cars weren't all that fast. Anybody here know just how fast his car really was?

He's a pretty good guy either way, as he also worked as a paramedic in those days (with the local "rural" ambulance company) and he had to haul my sorry-butt to the hospital after one particularly bad night (I had rolled a big block '65 Coronet down into a creek after a long night of "excesses") where he then counseled me to carefully consider my hospital of treatment for my injuries (thankfully, mostly just cuts & bruises). This caused a much-longer ride to the "further" option and confused local law enforcement, allowing me time to recover my wits and call my police officer father (so he could then interceed, I ended up with a ticket for making an illegal pass). Ahh...the truly foolish things we lived-through then, the world is so-different now.