a 57 chevy is just about as bad ass as it gets, and you have a truly amazing car.
However
the old cars and engines are not nearly as efficient as the fox's and newer cars are. It's much easier to get a fox into the 12's. Like I mentioned go with the nitrous, gears, and control arms,drag slicks or do a head/cam/intake/gears/drag slicks.
my buddy like I mentioned is doing 13.7s with a bone stock longblock, and that's only 8 tenths off. He just upgraded to a ported lower, and a 70 mm throttle body, and early indications are that he may have shaved of close to two tenths more.
unfortunetly you have to do a lot more with the older cars to get them to run as hard. I'm not trying to insult,...i'm rooted in old school cars. we have a 66 valiant vert, a 72 302 maverick, a 64 dart, etc etc.
the important thing to remember is that too many people get carried away with big horsepower mods, and never address the traction and suspension issues. My buddy tony has put most of his efforts on applying the power that he does have to the ground, with no power adders, aftermarket intakes etc etc he's gotten mid 13's. From there, your just a set of heads, a cam, and an intake away from 12's