Saying it's believable that a GLHS would be faster than a GN is like saying a 340 Dart Swinger would be faster than a solid-lifter 396 Chevelle. Is the A-body a giant-killer, capable of wreaking havoc on the Chevelle? Sure. But, all things being equal, it ain't faster than the L78.
The numbers don't lie. It may be hard to believe because you don't want to believe it, but I saw a lot of turbo Dodges put "muscle cars" to shame back in the day. Especially after a computer upgrade to increase the boost pressure. A $135 stage 1 computer would put that GLHS at 205 hp with a power to weight ratio of 11.2 lb/hp.
In 1986 Hot Rod magazine did an article to show how impressive the GLHS really was.
https://www.carmemories.com/cgi-bin/viewexperience.cgi?experience_id=113 Post 1/4 mile times. Not power to weight ratio.
A chip, exhaust, and a better air intake, and an 86/87 GN would go very low 12’s all day. A
Quarter mile times aren't a good barometer because they can be dependent on a lot of different factors; driver skill, ambient temperature, barometric pressure, tires, etc. Based on the power to weight ratio, the numbers show that it is believable the a stock GLHS could beat a stock GN, especially an earlier one.
As far as mods, now that's going down a rabbit hole isn't it? However, I will say this. In 1987 a Chrysler LeBaron paced the Indy 500 with an 8 valve 2.2l turbo under the hood that produced more than 300 hp. All the parts that went into that engine build were available over the counter at your local Chrysler dealer. It was called the Super 60 package. And this was back in the late 1980', I'm not even talking about using current tech.
http://minimopar.net/perf/super60.html
