Technical Stovebolt guys: Nicson Volumetric 1X1 intake - rare?

An unplanned flathead rebore has me eyeing off some wall junk to help with costs.

It's for a 216 Chev I ***ume, but I'm told can be adapted to 235. I'm not so sure what it's trying to achieve and I've always seen this as gofast snakeoil, but somebody may have other ideas.
I understand Nicson did a lot of marine stuff, but not sure this is boatey.

Desireable, or doorstop?

 

Usually cylinder 1 and 6 tend to run a bit lean on a single setup - the claim was that the bigger plenum helps with that and also provides some upper end umph.

 

Maybe for circle burner cars limited to a single carb ?
Can't imagine a serious racer would choose a 216 if he wanted to win races ...

 

There's so little 216" stovebolt stuff out there, it would sell tomorrow. In fact, I've got a friend with a '41 who I owe a big favor. Deciding on what is fair is the only question to be answered here.

jack vines

 

I’ve got a very similar Ellis for a GMC 6. It has BU on one of the flanges. I’ve got a guy wanted to buy it named Ellis…

 

BU is for Butane ...

 

My guess also and told the person who inquired. I knew about propane powered engine and Carbs but never butane.

 

^^^^^^

Barney Navarro did a lot of research on butane; HRM early '51 wrote it up ....