What powered TFATF? (motohead thread) (1 Viewer)

[Sean Conklin]

Well Sean why were only 20 produced? In the musclecar era HP was the name of the game, if Chevy or Ford had a way to beat the Hemi, you can bet your britches they would have made it available to the public. Ford and Chevy were in a frenzy to come up with something more powerful, but never pulled it off. The hemispherical head Engine designed and built by Chrysler was and is still today a performance design unequalled by any manufacturer.

On a similar note there were Chrysler prototype cars that were capable of 600+ HP, but were deemed unstreetable, because of Camshaft durations, high compression, tendancies to overheat, whatever, this was probably one of the reasons for your 427 L88's demise.

You do not and did not see many Corvettes at the Drag Strip, The Corvette rear unispring design was not conducive to good traction, yes Corvettes made excellent road cars, but were not much good at the track, including Nascar, I don't remember ever seeing a Corvette racing Nascar.

If you want/wanted to go fast at the Drag Strip with a Chevy, you would want to use a Chevelle or Nova, or Camaro.

 

[Greg Z]

I read an article many years ago about those '67 vettes. They came with no radio or heater. Bare bones strictly for racing. A tidbit about the Hemi, if you ordered one you only got a 6 month drivetrain warrenty from Chrysler!

 

[Todd Hochard]

During the Musclecar era the Corvettes with 454's could barely muster high 13 second passes.

That was largely a traction-limited issue.

I think the engines like the L88 were produced with the sole intent of making enough of them, so that the drag racers could compete in a certain class. Just like the '67 Z28- SCCA dictated a 305cu in limit, and they had to sell 600 in order to make the class. They sold 602, all with the 302 engine. That allowed them to race with the GT350 Mustangs.

The L88 427 (and its all-aluminum counterpart, the ZL1) both had giant cams and 12.5:1 compression. After the disappearance of 106 octane leaded gas in 1970, these were of little use on the street. There were 69 ZL1 motors made- 62 in '69 Camaros, 7 in Vettes. Bill Jenkins ran one in a Camaro, and pulled a 10.30 in the quarter, with no modifications to the engine, and no nitrous/supercharging, etc. They were rated at 435hp, just like the L88, but dynoed at closer to 600hp.

So, yes, Chevy did compete with the Hemi. However, the Hemi design is inherently better for making MUCH more power.

Todd

 

[Sean Oneil]

Thanks for the informative response Todd