My Dad had the 65 Biscayne, 3 on the tree, manual brakes, manual clutch and Armstrong power steering. A real pig in the city, but it always ran well. He never started in first, straight into second and go.
Learned to drive in a 75 Impala, Had a 69 for a few years until I moved to GA. Had a 94 Caprice for a while as well. Lot's of seat time in full size Chevys. All had 350s (eventually)
Swapped a 350 in the 69. Ran pretty good - low 13s around 101.