Chrysler Second-Gen Hemi  With the 426 Hemi in 1964, Tom Hoover
and his Chrysler engineering team made lightning strike twice in
the same place. Casting around for a competitive edge in NASCAR
and drag racing, they decided to take the cylinder head
configuration of the original '51-58 Chrysler Hemi and adapt it
to the then-current B/RB V-8 short-block assembly. The port and
chamber layouts had to be tipped inward several degrees to make
the mammoth engine fit in a passenger car chassis, but to
Hoover's surprise, on the dyno the engine didn't seem to care.
The 426 Hemi clubbed the field in the '64 Daytona 500, stinking
up the show so badly that the engine was banned from NASCAR for
a time, and it ruled the early years of NHRA Pro Stock in
similar fashion. Even now, nearly a half-century after its
introduction, every engine in Top Fuel and Funny Car owes its
basic architecture to the Chrysler 426 Hemi.  Ford Windsor
...the engine was cutting edge in every other way, employing the
latest valvetrain gear and th