I had a '79 Olds Cutlas with that 260 V8. It was gutless and somewhat troublesome.
. . . .For many years General Motors divisions were Mostly autonomous.Each auto division designed and used their own engines and chassis.
I had a NOVA sedan my wife drove about thirty miles on the highway each way to where she taught school - forget which year in was - sometime in the mid to late 70s, that had a 260 V8 - a Chevy small block and rated and something like 110 HP. It was worse than anemic Smooth and quiet, but just no power at all. But as with the Delta 88 and its 350 "Chevy" engine, one small block looks like another under all that emissions plumbing, and you could pass emissions tests easily even if you had raised the compression and such if you didn't get too aggressive and kept the car well-tuned. We put a used/rebuilt 327 in there - I was raising kids, money was tight - with a slightly larger 2-bbl carb, again used - and just left it cosmetically as we'd bought it, and a bit grimy, too, nothing that would get attention if looked at. That NOVA was never a great car - it still did not have a lot of power like the 400 cid Delta "chevy" did, but it was a lot better and my wife liked the way it drove on the highway.
My dad revered Charles Kettering - GM's Chief of R&D. I think my Dad had met him and even had a course or two in mech engr from him in college or something. That's why he was an Oldsmobile man: always said Olds and Cadillac had the best engines because of some of Kettering's patents/invention. Not sure why, but he never liked Buick & Pontiac as much. He admitted the Chevy small block, which became my favorite even in high school, was a good engine, but thought it was too lightweight for real heavy duty. He did admit it was a great "hot rod"engine for that reason, and he liked to drive my 327 Camaro alot.
