Yeah, low compression really kills power, especially in small cube engines. The big cube, long stroke engines, like the 455, still had decent power & torque, especially the 455HO & SD455.

You can't really put any stock in factory hp & torque ratings. GM had different reasons, in different years & car models, to rate an engine either higher or lower than it actually was.

Some of the 350 & 400 engines were rated higher in the A-body than in a Firebird.

The RAIV was rated at only 370hp, which was only 4hp more than the 366hp RA3 engine. So, they were saying that the bigger 041 cam & the round port heads were only good for a 4hp increase. That's ridiculous.

Another thing that has been proven wrong is the advertised compression ratio. Many of the heads had bigger combustion chambers than advertised.