The History of the Chrysler Hemi Gen I

Comments · 496

• MI

  @michaelbenardo5695 · 3 years ago

  I have a 54 New Yorker wagon with the 331 HEMI.  Superb engine.  One reason they were so expensive to build is that there were three different ones.

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• BI

  @billjamison2877 · 4 years ago (edited)

  Growing up in the fifties and sixties, in 1956, my father bought a 1951 Chrysler Imperial 2 door Club Coupe in jet black paint, of course. That car had the 331 cu/in Hemi, automatic with Fluid-Torque drive (automatic with a clutch), power steering, power brakes, electric windows and a mohair interior. What a Beast! He had that car until 1975. We always had Chrysler products over the years and I now drive a '22 Rebel with, of course, a HEMI! MoPar or No car ! HEMI's Rule! HA!

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• CJ

  @CJColvin · 4 years ago

  Gotta love those early Hemi V8s.

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• AU

  @aussiebaz5363 · 4 years ago

  Brilliant, my old dad would have loved your film, in Australia in 1960, the Chrysler 313 Poly head was the fastest production car in the country, and he bought one. What a classic. Thank you for a well presented explanation of the Hemi.

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• RU

  @russellloomis4376 · 4 years ago

  Back in the 80s, my grandma had a white four-door with a blue interior 440 Coronet. I would light up the tires on that beast making runs to the grocery store and other errands. My uncle sold it and bought her a Tempo in the 90s. Man, I wish I had known better and bought that car back then. 👍

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• MI

  @michaelwisner4941 · 3 years ago

  One of the key advantages, was the hemi design allowed more room for bigger valves !!!!

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• KE

  @kennethconnors5316 · 4 years ago

  One of the BEST video's on motors EVER   "thanks , well done"

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• IC

  @icewaterslim7260 · 4 years ago (edited)

  My dream of building a first generation 354 Hemi powered AA/FD with a partner after graduating from HS died the day in &apos;66 when I read of Don Garlits 2nd generation 426 Hemi finally running about 15 mph faster and a third of a second quicker than anybody else at the time. I had been watching Don&apos;s 426 failing to break into 7 seconds or over 200 mph for about a year and hoping for more of the same. Don finally did it by advancing the timing way beyond what a first generation hemi would take for long. You needed to stick with 34 degrees with any 331, 354, 392 or Desoto running Nitro Methane (the mains too narrow in the little Dodge Red Ram for Nitro). Don was running 50 damned degrees and I could see the end of the reign of the First Generation and the independent Top Fuel teams coming.<br><br>And it was getting crazy anyway with guys taking half the clutch springs out for slipping clutches to allow for a bite of the tires on the pavement. That was beginning of the end of the &quot;Smoke Run Era&quot; but more important to me it was killing drivers with blown clutches like they had never done in those numbers before. I wasn&apos;t going to drive but i didn&apos;t want my partner disemboweled by a clutch plate headed for the stratosphere either.<br><br>This guy, Tom Jobe of the &quot;Skinner, Jobe and Sorokin&quot; &nbsp;- &quot;Surfers&quot; top fuel team of 1964-&apos;66 can tell you some additional reasons, besides the breathing flow, why the Chrysler Hemi of the 1950s ruled the roost in AA/FD through 1966. If you didn&apos;t start with a Chrysler you changed to one if you wanted to compete . . . <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZzUMBAXGsQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZzUMBAXGsQ</a>

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• RO

  @rotax636nut5 · 4 years ago

  It always blows my mind to see the beauty and the innovation of cars from the 50&apos;s era, those cars are worth a fortune today even as rusty wrecks and the engines of course are legendary, the hemi design was a winner all the way and has won more races than you can shake a stick at, the genius of fantastic engines and fantastic cars, I love it!

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• RO

  @ronjenkins795 · 2 years ago

  Best engine ever made.I worked on many of them.

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• V1

  @v1-vr-rotatev2-vy_vx31 · 4 years ago (edited)

  Back in the late sixties knew somebody had a ski boat with this exact hemi engine in it, painted black with chrome all over it and formula 1 style cosworth Ford exhaust as seen on the Indy car also spaghetti around and two big long megaphones water injected on the boat totally cool, we had six water skiers pulling behind this boat all at once, it definitely had the power.

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• SH

  @shoominati23 · 4 years ago

  The Ardun kit wasnt actually developed for Hot Rodding, it was developed for truck drivers - because you had some pretty huge van bodies being put on the Model A truck platform - but there weren&apos;t any diesel engines like Cummins or Detroit available at the time.. And instead of taking some oof your load off to get over the rockies let&apos;s say, with one of these hemi conversions on the flathead you could make it on time and with a full load.

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