Good readin'. =)
GS -
mrdancer@camalott.com wrote:
> 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
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:19:03 EDT