American Muscle Car - Fastest Engines

[di81977]

Over Christmas, Speed channel ran a mini American Muscle Car marathon. Just got my new DVR and recorded all of them.

One show was about the real horsepower vs stated horsepower of the muscle car engines. As you know, actual HP was understated due to insurance costs. I think this was a 1 of 2 series of shows. Have not seen the second one yet.

They basically had 5 engines built to stock factory specs. Stock heads, intake, compression, distributor, etc. They did allow up to a .60 bore. Then ran them on a Dyno. HP was at the flywheel.

Results were amazing. Now you know why everyone wants a HEMI:

Hemi 426 - 820HP
Ford 427 - 637HP
Chevy 427 - 527HP
Pontiac 421 - 488HP
Chevy 409 - 406HP

 

[joedls]

I find these numbers just as suspect (if not more so) as the manufacturers #s.

 

[di81977]

Joe, you are probably right, the numbers are quite surprising. The show leads you to believe these are stock engines. They even mention "no ringers." The HP figures were at the flywheel with open exhaust. They used 3rd party dyno's, however, they were not the same dyno for each engine. Check out the show, it is re-running on Jan 21st.

Don't know enough about the Ford 427 (I do know it was not the SOHC version, but did have a tunnel port intake...was that stock??), but the Chevy 427 was an L88. 527HP is close to what I would have expected. I think it was factory rated around 430.

 

[John McGilvary]

Over Christmas, Speed channel ran a mini American Muscle Car marathon. Just got my new DVR and recorded all of them.

One show was about the real horsepower vs stated horsepower of the muscle car engines. As you know, actual HP was understated due to insurance costs. I think this was a 1 of 2 series of shows. Have not seen the second one yet.

They basically had 5 engines built to stock factory specs. Stock heads, intake, compression, distributor, etc. They did allow up to a .60 bore. Then ran them on a Dyno. HP was at the flywheel.

Results were amazing. Now you know why everyone wants a HEMI:

Hemi 426 - 820HP
Ford 427 - 637HP
Chevy 427 - 527HP
Pontiac 421 - 488HP
Chevy 409 - 406HP

This is very interesting, cause back in the 60's and 70's I raced many cars with these engines and showed most of them my tail lights in my little CS.
My friend had a 69 Hemi Charger with 2,4v that beat me every time when it was tuned, but not when it needed a tuneup.
It's hard for me to believe that these cars came stock from the factory with this kind of HP, with the exception of the 409. If these HP# are true, I wounder what kind of HP my CS/CJ came with from the factory?

John

 

[joedls]

This is very interesting, cause back in the 60's and 70's I raced many cars with these engines and showed most of them my tail lights in my little CS.
My friend had a 69 Hemi Charger with 2,4v that beat me every time when it was tuned, but not when it needed a tuneup.
It's hard for me to believe that these cars came stock from the factory with this kind of HP, with the exception of the 409. If these HP# are true, I wounder what kind of HP my CS/CJ came with from the factory?

John

John,

I had a Mach 1 with a 428 CJ, that was probably a little heavier than you car, but to me it felt about comparable to my 65 convertible which has 419 flywheel HP and 439 lbs-ft of torque.

And as you say, those Hemis may have been a little quicker, but not 400 HP faster. :icon_no: :icon_no:

Joe

Joe