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The older V8s can be great highway runners. They suck the gas bigtime around town, but many of them were geared well to hit their efficiency peak at higher speeds on the highway, as they had enough torque to turn low RPMs and still cruise along easily.
The Mopar 360 in my Jeep will turn 1200 rpm doing 40 in OD (4 speed auto, 4th gear) with the TC locked and still have enough power to GAIN speed uphill around town without downshifting. That's the only reason the mileage isn't much worse than the 6 cylinder in actual use. Now, if I had the money to re-gear it so I wasn't turning 2000 rpm at 65 mph, that would help a lot, as it has the torque to do it at lower RPMs.
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