Maybe, but the HEMI option cost less than a grand, and a cammer or a ZL1 was several thousand dollars plus a waiting time of months. With a HEMI you burned rubber in two or three weeks most, for 800 bucks. And it was a more streetable engine, if Chrysler had wanted to make a more radical version, it would have killed any GM or Ford offering, and easily, I might add.
Maybe, but the HEMI option cost less than a grand, and a ‘cammer or a ZL1 was several thousand dollars plus a waiting time of months. With a HEMI you burned rubber in two or three weeks most, for 800 bucks. And it was a more streetable engine, if Chrysler had wanted to make a more radical version, it would have killed any GM or Ford offering, and easily, I might add.
But it didn't, so it wasn't much special other than price. The Hemi 6cyl in Australia though had V8 beating performance from a 6cyl.
Edit: These Hemis were all small blocks right? How powerful was the most potent version? The 426 with 425hp/317kw?
Edit 2: Looking around, that's not much better than a number of other V8s of the time. Ford Fairlane 427, identical power output. The ZL1 had more power, obviously the Cammer a hell of a lot more power. Obviously there's this 454 in question with more power. Yes there's more than that it was better than too, and I can understand why people love it of course, but I don't see why it's instantly considered better than everything else.
