They ran 200 in an era without restriction. Modern cars would kill them under the same rules.
Overpowered, overpriced new cars
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They ran 200 in an era without restriction. Modern cars would kill them under the same rules.
dodge man
Super Star Member
Thats was kind of my point. The wing cars would have a huge advantage today because of the downforce. Also the 426 hemi would never meet the restritive rules Nascar has today.
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JDgreen227
Super Member
Your post makes me wonder about the power developed by the Hemi back then vs. the power developed by todays race engines with the restrictions mandated by Nascar today. Current cars produce about 750 hp with 358 cubic inches. I did find a lot of info that the street 426 Hemis were rated at 425 hp. Actual hp would have been higher. Race car hp...600 maybe?
dodge man
Super Star Member
Its tough to compare the older engines with the newer ones. Todays Nascar engines turn some crazy high RPM's, approaching 10,000 rpms. If you applied todays techology to a 426 hemi, there is little doubt it would make more power than todays Nascar engines. The displacement advantage alone would account for quite a few horsepower and the hemi head design is also a advantage. If you watch top fuel drag racing, they are still running engines based on the 426 hemi, and in that form, the power is measured in thousands of horsepower. They don't really know how much power they make exactly.
jonyyuma
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The mfrs. have been cheating on hp for a spell..The superbird had a lot more HP that they posted...The standard hemi engine had parts good enough to sell the car..The good parts came later in the wallet...Like the chevys..I liked my BIl dodge demon with the 340 sleeper motor in it too...The ground effect panels scared the racers, after all it has proven several times at the big track, Speed makes a car FLY, sometimes into the stands..I see the fences are getting a lot stronger and higher at the tracks..almost as high as the TICKETS???
RobertN
Super Member
The 426 Hemi were the first restricted motors. Nothing could keep up with them. GM was a non-player at the time. As sweet as the Ford 427's were, they could not keep up. NASCAR leveled the field by restricting the Hemi first.
Run a unrestricted Hemi Daytona or Superbird with modern tires; I would put my money on the the old Mopar.
I'd even put a Holman-Moody Talledega against these new cars, with modern tires. By late '70, NASCAR was restricting Ford and Mopar, because they were too fast and dangerous...
Run a unrestricted Hemi Daytona or Superbird with modern tires; I would put my money on the the old Mopar.
I'd even put a Holman-Moody Talledega against these new cars, with modern tires. By late '70, NASCAR was restricting Ford and Mopar, because they were too fast and dangerous...
Scooby074
Super Member
Back when NASCAR was NASCAR... not what it is today. :thumbsup:
I still say they should abandon "spec" cars and go back to "stock" cars.. something you can actually buy.. maybe in limited numbers for homologation, but still available. That about the only way ill go back to watching.
Not only would it increase sales at the dealerships but it would advance consumer vehicle engineering... But thats just a dream...
Bird
Rest in Peace
My thoughts exactly. I used to like stock car racing, but have no interest in NASCAR anymore.
RoyJackson
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Same here...like most "sports", there's too much money involved in it to be a sport.
Bird, you remember a mid-60's racer named Fred Lorenzon? Drove for Ford for a while. How about Parnelli Jones?
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JDgreen227
Super Member
Bird, as much as the cars in Nascar today are tweaked far away from factory specs, back in the olden days of racing, cheating was rampant and really widespread and a lot of the racers didn't seem to care about being honest. One of the biggest frauds was the so called "15/16 scale " 1966-67 Chevelles built by Smokey Yunick. The rules said a builder could use any "manufactured" frame, which Smokey interpreted as meaning he could "manufacture" his own frame...and that was just the tip of the cheating edges old Smokey put on those cars.
Those cars had a destroked 416 CID Chevrolet rat motor that displaced 416 cubic inches, horsepower was rated at 450 @ 7600 rpm. Weight was 3,900 pounds.
BTW, I followed NASCAR back in the old days too, but gradually lost interest.
