65 Hardnoks

Back in the late 80's, I read about a Bill Mitchell mountain motor that was 600ci and 900hp on a mild cam and carburetor with pump gas.

Can these still be bought?

I'm in the position to finally buy one of these engines for my '65 roadster along with all the drive-train beefing up. It's still a lot less than a new
ZR1.

scott1094

65 Hardnoks
There are many crate motor suppliers today and Bill Mitchell is one of them. You can even get huge cubic inch small blocks. It may sound odd but, a 600 inch big block is not all that big any more. Sonny Leonard offers a 1000+ cu. in. engine (about $125,000) with close to 2000 h.p. N/A and a street version with about 1500 h.p. on pump gas for around $90,000. You know the old saying
"Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?"

Scott

427Hotrod

There are quite a few big motor combos out there these days. But you really need to do your homework and study what parts are actually being used. Some are a lot better than others. Some include pure junk. Building a motor like this to live takes some planning and careful assy. Plus there is a LOT of hype in advertised numbers. I've seen some "800HP" motors actually make 650 or so on the engine dyno. There are enough provenones out there that you can use as a barometer of performance. For example, I freshened my old 540 into a 555" this year and swapped different heads, cams, intakes, carbs and EFI around on the dyno. It was all covered in Auto Enthusiast magazine. Final version in the car today made 871HP and 742 lb ft of Q on 93 octane and has completed cross country road trips (2500 miles).

JIM