Doesn't seem like a lot of money, but my parents paid the same for our house in Culver City around the same time, That would buy you about 10 V8 Mustangs.
That was right after the Allison were banned. Ready to race, Yeah, but in what. They weren't even legal in marathons. You could set a unlimited kilo record with it. But it had already done that.
Of course you get 4 spare engines. Rudy told me he paid 50.00 in the crate for the one he ran. It cost him 4 times that to have the pistons machined that they cast for it at the shop Stock they are supercharged, and had lower compression, and superchargers weren't legal at the Salton Sea race. Probably why Patterson had spare engines. Blown and unblown.