Oh Boy! Where do we start? The Hemi dates back to the early 50's - there
were several versions of them and they ran quite well - gave Chrysler their
reputation on southern backroads (moonshiners used 'em to outrun revenuers -
that's kinda how NASCAR developed ;-)
The early hemi's did only so-so in the drag races - Don Garlits was one of
the drivers sponsored by Chrysler and they made him run the hemi. Garlits
didn't like it 'cuz it wasn't that fast, so he advanced the timing way
beyond what the other engines were running - he was hoping to blow the motor
up so he wouldn't have to run it - turned out the engine ran like a scalded
dog with the advanced timing - Garlits cleaned up at the track and the rest,
as they say, is HISTORY!
In the early 60's, Chrysler began developing a new race motor to compete on
the superspeedways of NASCAR. They had put a lot of development into their
426 Wedge engines, and used that technology, along with the Hemi-head
technology from their earlier engines, in building up the new 426 Race Hemi.
Btw, Hemi is short for hemispherical-shaped combustion chambers, which led
to a more efficient flame front and burning in the cylinder. It also
allowed the use of huge valves, which, along with race internals, gave the
426 Hemi its power and reputation. The Race Hemi debuted in '64 and was
conservatively rated at 500HP. It immediately cleaned up at NASCAR (where
competition sells tickets), thus NASCAR (Bill France) deemed that the engine
must be made available to the public (500+ units /year), effectively banning
the Hemi from NASCAR. Consequently, Chrysler came out with the Street Hemi
in 1966 (coincided with Charger debut), conservatively rated at 425HP. It
had a milder cam, etc. to make it more streetable. Chrysler continued to
dominate at NASCAR, their toughest competition being Ford's aerodynamic
427-powered Talledegas. If it weren't for NASCAR, we wouldn't see nearly as
many 426 Hemis on the street, if at all. We also wouldn't have seen the
Superbird and Charger Daytona.
Hemi heads are quite popular nowadays on smaller (primarily 4-cylinder)
engines, due to their efficiency in the combustion process (Mitsu used them
alot in the 70's). However, the hemi-head was just a small part of the 426
Hemi's success, most of it was in the R&D that went into developing the Race
motor as a whole.
For more info on the early hemis, you might want to check out some of the
MoPar newsgroups.
-- '92 Dak CC 2wd 318 3.55 '84 GoldWing Interstate
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