American Muscle Cars Engine Shootout

[moparmaniac59]

Hey Guys,
I just finished watching a very interesting episode of American Muscle Cars. They did an engine shootout special using the classic most popular big blocks from the 60's/70's. They used original engines from the era with factory correct components (not necessarily original). They could have a max over bore of .060". Most of these engines were very power UNDER-rated for insurance concerns. I had always heard this about the 426 Hemi, but had no idea of the real power it would put out. All the engines were tuned and dyno'd and ranked according to horsepower. Guess the winner??? It was the 426 Hemi that produced a whopping 820 horsepower.  man, that is crazy power.  The L88 427 only produced around 525 HP. I was surprised. Nobody even came close to the hemi. The runner up was just over 600 HP and it was the FORD 427. I am still amazed. That's a butt-ton of raw power!! I want one!!!! Anybody else watch it???

                                                                 Matt B.

[bordin34]

I think it was a ringer.

[LAA66]

 I saw that episode and was very suprised also. With that much spread between the Hemi and the others you would think nothing else on the road could touch one back then.

[sleepychallenger]

i saw it too, had to call my tuner freind and 

[4Cruizn]

Very cool!  I missed it but will be looking for a rerun!   

[71bigblock]

Cool.  Anyone have some '70's Hemi driving experiences?     Were they really feared? 

[vinb]

Pretty neat, I watched it last night and was suprised that the Hemi maded that kind of power. I would have thought that the L-88 would have been in the neighborhood of 600 h.p.. The Hemi 820 h.p.?? figured around 675-700 h.p.. I was impressed with the 427 Ford, not bad at all.
Maybe they will do small blocks next....

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Was there ever really any doubt???       

[HP2]

I think it was a ringer.

It was. Info surfaced shortly after that show originally aired that the Hemi was actually more of a F.A.S.T. type build with significant internal mods than it was an actual stock build.

[js27]

I grew up in the 60's & 70's and yes the name Hemi always brought alitte fear in the hearts of competition. The truth is that alot of the street hemi's got dusted by 440's and and 440+6. I even remenber a 68 340 Swinger dusting a 68 hemi Charger. I think the biggest problem was the owners of these cars were NOT good tuners. I remember reading an article about Tom Hoover(creator of the Hemi) saying it use to drive him nuts when he would go the the drag strips and see guys running 106 mph with there new hemi's when they get there and by the time they left they would be running 94 mph because they would mess with the carbs. He also said that a 6 pack was in the works for 71 or 72 Hemis just because they worked so well on the 440's. They even had two prototypes built and were testing them  but then the production hemi came to an end.
Ah the good old days !!
JS27

[HemiOrange70]

Could U imagine a hemi six pack-WOW

[nivvy]

Go hemi... but that was a setup!!! 820HP stock.... come on!

[miketyler]

I saw that too and was suspicious when the Hemi was out there all by itself in the lead. 

My question is, why didn't they investigate that before they aired it? I mean they spent a few minutes at the start explaining how these were all carefully selected stock builds, and are as they would have shipped from the manufactuer.

The rest of the lineup seemed accurate enough as HP and torque were right in line with what the advertised specs were.   

[matt63]

I called BS on the 820 hp too.  Perhaps they should of done a tear down of the winning engine.

[nivvy]

I could "maybe" believe it if it was one of 68 hemi darts/barracuda motors which was a factory produced motor that ran 10's... but I think that would be lacking integrity to use one of those motors... but I guess it was a factory hemi but you get the point