When the hot rod was invented, one of the first steps in the process was ripping off the hood and throwing it behind the barn. Easy and open access to the power station was required at all times. And of course there was also the need to show off the engine to everyone else on the street. You don’t need a Ph.D. in psychology to figure this out:
From day one, hot rod enthusiasts have focused on engines and going fast.
With our roots firmly planted in horsepower, Hot Rod thought it important to recognize some of the great engines in hot rodding history.
What defines a great hot rod engine?
Here are some criteria that the facts found: First, it must contain US parts. Then you need to display the resourcefulness and positive attitude that Americans naturally took to be the American spirit. And except in rare circumstances, it should be a V-8. So here are 10 of the best hot rod engines ever. No doubt some readers will cry out that we left their favorites off the list. That’s what we expect, so if you’re one of them, we apologize for the inconvenience.
(#1) Grumpy’s Pro Stock Small-Block: Back in the ’70s, Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins was the reigning guru of the small-block Chevy V-8 in drag racing. The runners were hanging on his every word; when he took off his hood in the paddock a crowd formed. But there wasn’t a pro category heads-up for the small-block in the NHRA until 1972, when the Pro Stock rules were rewritten to allow small-displacement engines in short-wheelbase cars, giving them a weight reduction vs. to the Chrysler Hemis that then sucked. the show. Seeing his opportunity, Jenkins entered Grumpy’s Toy IX, a hatchback Vega sporting a small-block 331ci.
(#2) Richard Petty’s ’64 Plymouth Race Hemi – Just so you know, this may not be the full story of the Chrysler 426 Race Hemi’s debut in the ’64 Daytona 500. Development of the 426 Hemi: The engine that Bill France turned purple was assembled in the last week of November 1963.
(#3) The Swamp Rat’s 200-mph 392 Hemi: Chris Karamesines clocked a speed of 204.54 mph in Alton, Illinois, in April 1960. In these billet days Fuel Hemis, the Swamp Rat’s engine VI is amazing to behold. In 1964, brokers couldn’t just assemble parts off the shelf; Ad-hoc engineering and experimentation was required. The Big’s 200 engine was built around a cast iron 392 Hemi block and heads.
(#4) Ford ’67 Lemans-Win 427 V-8: The 427 had a 4.23-inch bore and 3.78-inch stroke, its actual displacement was 424.9 But Ford decided to call it the 427.
(#5) Repco-Brabham V-8: Did you know that the Oldsmobile won the Formula One World Championship? Built around a 215ci, the Brabham 620 was an ingenious piece of ironwork.
(#6) Ron Main’s FlatFire V-8 – An original ’46 Ford 59AB block with three main bearings, the engine was almost completely redesigned by Mike Landy and the late Dick Landy of Dick Landy Industries. With just over 700 hp, the FlatHead hums happily at 7,000 rpm on the dyno. “The FlatHead is just a nice little engine.”
(#7) Eddie Hill’s Four-Second Hemi: Eddi Hill pulled off the first four-second pass in drag racing history: a 4.990, raising the speed record to 288.55 mph in the process.
(#8) Bill Kuhlman’s 200-mph Big Block Chevy: With the juice flowing, it produced more than 1,000 pound-feet of torque at 6,500 rpm, and at 7,000 rpm it made 1,379 hp. Pretty good for a kit engine, especially in 1987.
(#9) Reher, Morrison, and Shepherd’s 83 Pro Stock Chevy: A fabricated sheet metal intake manifold and a pair of 4500-Holeys completed the setup. There, the 605 engine garnered the IHRA title in 1983 along with the third consecutive NHRA championship in the same year. Simply put, this was a bad engine.
(#10) Smokey Yunick’s 427 Mk II Mystery Engine: The Mk II’s short block used the same 4.84-inch bore spacing as the 348/409, and its 4.31-inch bore and stroke 3.65 inches were identical to the 427ci ZII version of the 409. Smokey believed the engine was good for 600 hp or more.
Buy it, build it, drive it, love it… of course, there are many more great engines in our history that were not covered here. The tough get going, and things get faster.
