#426 Hemi

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Don "Big Daddy" Garlits

(From the Hotrod.com interview with Don Garlits)

“Nobody wanted to switch from the 392,” Garlits says. “I was doing great with the 392, but Frank Wylie (Dodge) said, ‘We don’t make that engine anymore.’ He wanted me to race with something the customers could buy. There were a few of us running the 426. Me, Roland [Leong], The Greek [Chris Karamasines], and a lot of people had ’em, but it was like a second car. None of them ran good. We called it the ‘elephant;’ it was a brute! You never smashed the ring lands or squished bearings like in the 392, but it didn’t go anywhere. You know, like an elephant, so big and massive, you can’t hurt it, and it just sort of plods along.”

“It all came to head for me at Columbus. I went in for a match race against Jim and Alison Lee. I ran three runs in the 8s [with the 426], the 392 ran in the 7s, easy, and [the 426] ran 191, 192 mph. The 392 was running 206, 210, easy. I won the race and had top time and low e.t. So I go up there to get paid, and Clark Radar, Sr. [the track owner] is sitting there behind this big desk, But not one thing on it except this stack of money and a .45 pistol, and overhead, this big moose that he’d shot. It was a very intimidating situation, the gun, Mr. Radar, and the moose. He says, ‘Garlits, you laid down on me. You didn’t run 200. I’m cutting your money.’ Then he shoved $500 dollars toward me with one hand, and kinda slid the gun toward me with the other, and told me to get out. Well, I did, but he cut me $750 and that was a lot of money back then.”

“I’d figured out what I was going to do,” he says. “I was going to run the 426, blow it up, load it up, and go back to the 392. Walk away from the Dodge sponsorship, the whole mess. So the next day I put 40 degrees spark lead in the thing — we couldn’t run more than 34 in the 392 or they’d split the cylinder walls. Everyone knew that, so we all ran the 426 the same. My crew was sure I was going to blow it up. They had the backup engine in the truck, ready to go. Well, I make the run, and what do you think it runs? 214 mph! A new world record. We get it back to the pits and drop the pan, expecting to see damage, and it looks beautiful, we didn’t even change the oil! So I get the wrench on the magneto to try more, and the crew is begging me not to, saying ‘Big, it’s a nice engine! It just ran a world record! Don’t blow it up!’ but I got to know, so I go for 50 degrees, and it runs 219. That was it, that was the end of the 392 for me.”

[stone-cold-groove]

From the car files: ad for the 1970 Plymouth Hemi ’Cuda.

[yz]

1966 Plymouth Belvedere II with what appears to be a 426 cubic inch HEMI V8.

Ashland Car Show, September 2024.

Fujifilm X-T50 with XF 23mm f/2.0.

[musclecardefinition]

1968 Dodge Charger RT 426 Hemi – Role Model For Future Car Generations. Read more.

https://www.musclecardefinition.com/

[blackros78]

[hockeymilf]

1964 Sport Fury

[untouchvbles]

Plymouth Road Runner Superbird at Cruisn' The Grove (2023) in Elm Grove, WI.

[a-spoonful-o-generosity]

426 Follows for My silly Little Spoon Horse musings <3

This thing DOES have a HEMI.

Thank you, everypony.

I love you all, My Darlings <3

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

16 Plug 426ci Hemi, Tunnel Ram, Duel Holley Dominators

[stone-cold-groove]

Yep, it’s a Hemi.

[sandssservices]

Visible Engine Block reveals all of the inner workings of the engine; mechanism is motorized to put everything in motion, motor is sound-synched to audio chip in base to provide realistic sound.

[hififotos]

66 Plymouth Belvedere II 426 Hemi

[musclecardefinition]

Charger RT 426 Hemi 1968 Style Power and Performance. => Read more!

https://www.musclecardefinition.com/

[waltfelix]

1965 Plymouth Belvedere II by Walter Felix Via Flickr: 2008 Mopar Power Festival - Best of Show Winner - Chris Murray - 1965 Hemi Belvedere II Photo by Walt Felix - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi