Originally posted by Kai
And to think, back in '69 you could get a Hemi Roadrunner for around $3500. You got a 500ish horsepower stock engine, and a whole damn brand new car to keep it in.
Remember, back in those days the factory rated power outputs of these engines was UNDERrated for insurance reasons. You could expect a 425hp 426ci Hemi to turn around 500hp "out-of-the-box." Add some headers, a cam, and a big Holley carb and you were untouchable.
500 hp then is not the same as 500 hp now. The shift away from gross horsepower ratings made engine power more representative of what you would see at the crank in a real car instead of a bare engine driving ONLY the crank. Yeah, the hemi was under rated by it's gross standard. But they still only made about 440 crank hp, and a little <400 RWHP (today's standards). Fast, no doubt, but not as much as many believe.