But the death knell on breathing for these engines was sounded when the Chrysler front office told the engineers to build a new engine for the Valiant that was as short (fan-to-firewall) as possible in an inline six configuration....
So, if they had been building an I-6 purely for performance, they could have gone with big bores, maybe OHC, heck, maybe 4 valves per cylinder. But then they'd need 7 main bearings, so the whole package would have been much longer, and taller, and if they had tried to keep the same heavy-duty construction, much much heavier. And a Valiant would need the hood length of a Fury. So maybe it's just as well... Hurray for forced induction!