I was watching the Speed channel this morning. American muscle car was on and they had a greatest muscle car engine shootout. Cool I thought. They had some older early 60s "big" cubic inch motors. They were going to dyno the stock motors and see who came out on top. Rules had to be a stock set of heads and short block, max over bore of .060 and a stock or blueprint cam. Intake and carbsahd to be factory ones. They could run headers. A 421 pontiac, a 409 Chevey a FE 427 Ford motor a 426 Street Hemi and a L88 Chevy. Good shootout I thought. First up was the 409 Chevy rated at 425 HP it pulled right at 410 HP on the engine dyno. Pretty respectible numbers. Next up is the 421 Pontiac. It pilled around 430 HP. Not bad I thought. Next is the 427 Ford. It pulled 608 HP . What a load of BS for a stock motor. Next is the 426 Hemi, it pulls 800+ HP WHAT!!. No freaking way with stock heads and stock cam. The L88 Chevy was next and it pulled 530 HP with headers. This is in range of what they pull.
Who were they kidding with these numbers. Are they a little pro Mopar and Ford? This was all done on the same dyno with the same operators supposedly. 3 motors I can believe but the Ford and Hemi no way.

This may be an older show that some have seen but I was shocked that they even put these numbers up.

 

That Ford and especially the Hemi, had to have been worked. No way would production specimens have done that well. Also, where's the Buick 455 Stage 2, one of the all-time kings of the muscle car era??

Utter propaganda...

 

This apparently was not your ordinary Hemi that you may be accustom too.. The only engine capable of those numbers is the 1965 A990 Race Hemi. It`s still used in the Mopar Shootout featured at the US Nationals for the stock class AA/SSA cars every year. They run middle 8`s at 150+. for big dollars. One bitchin engine. ..

 

And no GM Z-11 427?


A very rare BB by any standard. 57 total produced (1963).


I remember hangin' with the boys, at the drag strip, back in 63. One friend had a 63 Ford Sedan w/Lightweight goodies added (fiberglass hood, doors and trunklid, aluminum bumpers and tranny, no radiio, no ashtray, no armrests, no carpet, etc) that was a little tweaked.

We actually drove up to Detroit and met with some of the engineer's who helped with some tips for setting the car up for all out strip competition (Welded spider gears, drilled holes in the frame, removed every other fender bolt, pre-loaded springs, etc, etc).

I remember the Z-11 equiped Chevy just never quite got it done, while a 426 Wedge was constantly kickin' butt on the local scene.

Meanwhile, as I recall, the "A" stock national record was held by Don Gay with a Pontiac GP with a 421 for the years 61, 62 & 63 (13 flat for the 1/4).

NHRA history records don't seem to go back past 74...

 

These were not ultra rare engines that only a few were made. They had to be available to the common public. So no Z11 or ultra rare Hemi or ZL1 motor. All the motors looked very stock. The Buicks and Olds and AMC motors are going to be run in a future episode.

 

I noticed also that the Ford 427 and Mopar 426 where running dual 4 barrels and everybody else was running a single 4.

 

Gordon, I watched that also and I almost fell out of my damn chair when I saw that BS.....First off, the engines were dynoed at different shops, on different days....Second, the engines were dynoed at shops that specialize in THOSE type engines.

When they were dynoing the 409, I was watching the readout on the dyno and it read 420hp, but it dropped to 409 at the end of the pull, yet they recorded the peak at 409hp

You could listen to the 427 ford and the Hemi and tell they were HIGHLY modified engines.....They blew threw the pull so fast it wasn't even funny. I mean seriously, 800hp out of a 426 hemi? yeah, maybe on a 250hp shot of gas.

The 409/L88/389 were probably stock motors but...the others were total BS. That show is a joke.

 

Did you read the fine prints? The show was probably sponsered by Chrysler

 

I noticed the 409 Hp was higher on the dyno as well.
They should have used the same dyno for all engines. Do you think some of the dyno operators were also the builders?

 

Which version was the ford? If it was a tunnel port motor, those numbers could be very close.

A friend of mine used to run sprints on a local dirt track back in the late 60's. He ran 427 tunnel ports which he bought directly from ford for $505 each, drop shipped to his door.

 

Atleast I know I was not stoned when I watched it. I thought I was seeing things when they said 800 hp from a stock hemi

 

Gordon...

I watched the same show and was also struck by the power of the 427 Ford and the Hemi, even somewhat skeptical. However, you should drive over to Pitman and talk to Rich Morley just outside of town on Delsea Drive. Back in the 60's he and his Dad and brother built many of the engines that ran at Atco. Rich ran a '66 or '67 427 Fairlane and held the A Stock record at Atco for a few years with his Fairlane. The car was awesome and no-one could touch it.

While I was surprised by the numbers, I do remember well the 427 Fords back then including a few that ran in the modified class at many of the local circle tracks in South Jersey. They were rare and expensive to run, but were killers when they did.

I believe Mr Morley has now semi-retired and they are no longer known for building such awesome race motors, but one of the sons is still doing some machine work. Plan to spend some time, because Mr Morley is a heck of a story teller...

GUSTO

 

No doubt that the Ford and Hemi can produce big numbers in modified state but these were supposed to be production line builds wit hstock heads and cam and no mods.

The 427 Ford was supposed to be a FE motor.

I beleive they were a bit biased on their reports.

 

Gordon, that was my point in mentioning Rich Morley's Fairlane. You may recall, back in the 60's Stock was pretty stock... beyond some blueprinting and headers, these were virtually stock motors. I have no doubt that Rich had a few tricks he used to make the power he did, but it was a pretty stock FE motor. These of course were not 428 motors, the 427 was quite a unique FE motor which is why they were much more rare than the BB Chevy's at that time.

Your point was well taken by the way and I would be surprised to learn that he was making 600 hp... but not shocked...

GUSTO

 

All Ford 427's were FE motors.

The 427 SOHC motor made 615 hp @ 7000 rpm with a single 4 barrel. The 8 barrel motor made 657 hp @ 7500 rpm.

 

Doing that will seriously screw with the reading. There is no way on earth that they sold stock Hemis with 800hp. That's so ridiculous that it's insulting to the intelligence of ANY television viewer, much less anyone that knows anything about cars.

 

Those engines were in cars and the cars were on a dyno? So those numbers are rwhp? But different dynos? That is not much of a comparo.


Never mind... I see they were engines only....