I knew the Hemi was great but..........

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Realest

gearhead 4 life
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I just finished watching "American Muscle Car" and they were doing American engine builders big block shoot outs. Mostly in original equipment. I knew the Hemi was THE engine, but i didn't realize that everyone else was so far off the game. Needless to say it made me glad to be a Mopar man once again.
 
I've seen that episode twice. I don't buy it. I remember those days fairly well. The Hemi was known on the street as the engine to beat and it was also known that a 427 LS* Corvette with equiv options could beat it, albeit due to lower weight - but that would not make up for a 200HP deficit. It was also known that a StageII Buick 455 GS could keep up with it, if only barely - so again, it would not have been 200 HP down (I know they did not show the Buick on that episode, but think - would other GM divisions have let the Buick have 200 additional HP over CHevy, Olds and Pontiac?)

The Hemi was pretty much unbeatable at the track. I was a real CHevy fan in those days (pre dirver age) and I remember reading in one hot rod mag in the very early Pro-stock days, an interview with one of the top Chevy Camaro teams. I can't quote it, but the gist of it I remember to this day - he said something about the most the Chevy can make right now is about 685 to the Hemis 735.

Take that two ways - first that the Hemi was at the top, but also, that if a Pro stock Hemi was making 735, how could the street engine make 820?
 
maybe Mopar has a bit of sponsorship pull with that show
 
Who knows who's getting what unseen nowdays. But that's really besides the point - car mags (paper, TV, whatever) have always been inaccurate for any number of reasons.
 
This weekend when I saw the listing for that show again I knew someone would say something about it.

Those numbers are either bogus numbers or very, very prepped engines.

Before I was a Mopar guy I was a Buick guy and used to race my '70 Stage 1 4 speed against a buddies dad's '70 Hemi 4 speed Road Runner all the time and used to beat him every time. But that RR was on a mission towards the end of the quarter so if it was a 1/3 mile race he would have beaten me and the Hemi definetly had more HP than my Buick but not in the 800hp range.

Chuck
 
Those engines were not even close to factory specs-its was a joke,not even car crafts build up a few years ago with edelbrock heads and comp cams was a good comparison to factory performance.To really see what they were were from the factory would be painstakingly boring due to the lack of aftermarket parts getting to be used so no one (car mags/shows) really wants to do a apples to apples comparison-a whole lotta money and time spent with no real payoff in their eyes.
 
I can't find it now, but there was a thread somewhere on the net where the builder of that Hemi admitted that it was a ringer- it wasn't even close to stock.

Bob
 
Yea, you got to wonder about those numbers, especially the Hemis. Mopar Muscle wrote the numbers for the Royal Purple hemi engine challenge in their Feb. 2006 issue and of 7 different engines the spread was between 650-730HP. Some of these engines had some pretty serious parts like Indy and Stage V and displacements between 475 and 500 ci (500 being the limit) and they still weren't in the 800hp range.

Makes you wonder about all the other engine numbers.

Terry
 
The problem with a Hemi or any other multiple-carb engine is that most guys can not set them up or tune them at all. Back in the late 80's there was a guy around here who's daddy bought him a white '70 Hemi Cuda. It ran so bad that I could have completely destroyed him if I had two bad plug wires and a flat tire. Maybe while pulling a trailer. I have not seen that show. did they mention the other major contender? The 440 Six Pack.
 
I've seen a couple of chassis dyno's on claimed "stock" 426's and they were in the 380 rwhp range...the rated 425 might be a bit low...maybe more like 450-460 but probably not much more than that. The factory rated 425HP was at 5000RPM and if taken higher the HP did continue to climb. Right off the showroom a 440-6 turned in better times...though probably due to traction issues on the Hemi's part, but all in all the Hemi isn't that much more powerful than the 440-6.

Here's a comparison between a '99 Viper and '67 Hemi Belvedere on the dyno...

http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/roadtests/37426/index.html

It's an interesting comparision but from the numbers I think the Hemi might be a lil tired.
 
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