Dodge Hemi

The company's original run of Hemi V-8s ended in 1958, with a 390-bhp 392-cid edition. The design was sound -- large, hemispherical combustion chambers are highly efficient -- but Hemis were

complex, heavy, and expensive.

By the early 1960s, stakes were high enough for Chrysler to try again. To win on NASCAR's new superspeedways, and to dominate at the cutting-edge of drag racing, Mopar engineers developed a Hemi based on the 413/426 wedge-head engines. It still was costly and complicated, but the new mill weighed just 67 pounds more than the wedges. Maximum advertised horsepower for the 426-cid Hemi was 425. Rumor had dyno needles breaking at 600 bhp. These engines were reserved for racing, and their impact was immediate. Debuting at the Daytona 500 in February 1964, they promptly swept the first three places in NASCAR's premier event. Stock-car racing Hemis had a single Holley four-barrel atop a dual-plane high-rise intake manifold and were used with a four-speed manual gearbox. Drag-racing versions had a ram-tuned aluminum induction system with Carter AFB dual quads. Available only in special-order intermediate-sized Dodge and Plymouth models, they ran the four-speed or the TorqueFlite automatic, which was in its last year with pushbuttons.