found this on ebay?

looks like they thought about this one before they settled on the late 56-57 intake with the kidney shaped ports. linkage mounts and vacumm port look like edelbrock?

 lincoln/merc. y-blocks &mel's                                                               bucyrus, ohio.

The Isky RPM 300 camshaft was not availiable until sometime in the 1960s.

Therefore that camshaft would not have been an availiable inside an engine built at the Ford factory late 1956 and/or early 1957.

Oldmics

could the 285 hp setup have been the EDB-S intake found at smokey eunic's sale with twin linc. tea pots, a isky RPM 300 cam, and g heads milled .060 from the factory.

 lincoln/merc. y-blocks &mel's                                                               bucyrus, ohio.

Think I will go with A Sports. Sounds better than B and maybe somone will come up with more info by trying to prove me wrong.

U.S.A.C. Allowed the use of multible carbs or superchargers in 1957 with Ford winning 12 and Mercury winning 4 races, of the total of 16 races won. Chevy_Pontiac_Olds_Plymouth- never won a race. Ralph Moody driving the #22 Holman Moody supercharged Ford won all 3 races at the Milwaukee mile.

  JUST A MIDNIGHT CRUISE DOWN THUNDER ROAD!!! TOM DRUMMOND MIDWEST DIRECTOR 57 FORD INTERNATIONAL

This is just a guess on my part and should be seen as such but I would say that the 285 hp. motor was a still born victim of the Automobile Manufacturers Association ban on factory racing activities which took effect in the spring of 1957.  This action kicked the legs out from under most of the Ford teams in Nascar and to a lesser extent, Chev and Pontiac.  For what ever reason, Ford was the strongest adherent to the ban.  GM claimed to go along too but were know to leave the back door open for their teams to obtain "favors".  Ford did well in spite of themselves in '57 but because of the ban many programs were canceled, literally over night.  Concurrently, Nascar banned the superchargers AND GM's fuel injection and mandated single 4 barrel carburetors- goodbye dual carbs.  I don't know what the rules were in USAC but their stock car division was much smaller than Nascar and probably couldn't justify the continued manufacture of specialized parts.  Eventually Ford realized that they were being scammed and came back with high performance iterations of the new FE engine but it took another few years to get back into serious competition.

Slum, I just stumbled across a 1956 Drag Race Pictorial. It show a 56 T-Bird in race trim with A/SP on the side, this is what is written under the picture.

sports cars are segregated for drag strip competion by the same method used throught out the world to divide up sport car entries for main events-over and under 1500 cubic-centimeters piston displacement. As no restriction regarding wieght is in effect, the builders make a concerted effort to reduce this factor in thier favor. saftey regulations pertaing to street roadsters apply in both of these sports car divisions. I am sure your Bird would have run A/SP. I hope this helps Tom

  JUST A MIDNIGHT CRUISE DOWN THUNDER ROAD!!! TOM DRUMMOND MIDWEST DIRECTOR 57 FORD INTERNATIONAL

Think I will go with B Sports. The 300 horse Supercharged car would have been A if you go with logic. If anybody says I am wrong, I will see if they can prove to me what it should be. Thanks for all the input.

Looked in my old Hot Rods last evening.  Found an article about the '57 Stock class cars for which the manufactureres had supplied NHRA with horsepower and weight figures.  No Ford products were listed, probably no figures supplied at that time.  There were listings for '56 "factory" hot rods, and the Ford and Merc dual quad cars were relegated to C/Gas class.  There were no sports car classes mentioned, but like Paul, I would guess your car would fall into A or B sports.  Make up a class and put it on your windows, who would know the difference?

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

From what I've read in a reprint issued in YBM, it's likely a T.Bird, with the 270 HP engine, would have been in "A" Sports, or "B" at the lowest, in 1957. The 285 HP engine seems to be even more of a mystery than the Supercharged engine. I've also got a newspaper reprint of 1957 Ford cars, which has a footnote reference to the 285 engine, but no other details. Basically it was Ford's race version of the 270. Years ago we got info indicating that instead of it having the regular 256 degree (advertised) cam, that Ford ordered Isky E-2s for those engines.. but I can't confirm this.. Oh! and another thing with reference to your efforts to ascertain NHRA's listing for the 285 engine. Ford's factory backed efforts in 1956 & early 1957 was focused on NASCAR & to a lesser extent, USAC stock car racing. There was no factory support for the Drags, which likely explains why you can't find the info your are looking for..

Paul