Hemi Muscle 70 Years: Chrysler, Dodge & Plymouth High Performance

by Darwin Holmstrom

Hemi Muscle 70 Years  is the complete illustrated story of the legendary engine and the cars it powered. Author Darwin Holmstrom explores how Chrysler's Hemi engine became the number one choice for drag racers and stock car racers across the country, campaigned to great success by drivers like Richard Petty, Don Garlits, David Pearson, Sox and Martin, and more.

In 1950, Chrysler debuted a potent high-performance overhead-valve V-8 engine. Originally called the FirePower, it would soon be better known by the name “Hemi.” Intended to power Chrysler’s luxury cars , the Hemi found a higher humiliating its competitors on the street and at the race track .

On top of learning how the Hemi engine came to be , you'll also see how the Hemi remained the engine to beat on the street, stuffed into some of the most desirable performance cars in automotive the ‘Cuda, Road Runner, Charger, GTX, and Challenger, to name a few. The Hemi made such a lasting impact that Chrysler revived it as the top engine for the twenty-first century Challenger and Charger.

Today, Hemi is a household name, known to enthusiasts and consumers alike, often imitated, never duplicated. Having found its way into both sports cars and luxury cars, you'll often “Hey, has that thing got a Hemi in it?” This book answers “yes”…and offers the full exciting story!

Genres: Cars

192 pages, Hardcover

Published October 29, 2019

Reviews

[Donald Ohlinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darwin Holmstrom is a highly Respected automotive author and a muscle car enthuist who writes a lot of titles about muscle cars like Top Muscle and others that he has published . Hemi Muscle 70 Years : Chrysler,Dodge & Plymouth High Performance is a great awesome hardcover book about Chryslers fabled Hemi that has been engineered and developed to be the air raid system and to power a lot of high performance milestones to come out of Chrysler corporation like the letter series cars and dodges and Plymouths. Chrysler ran the speed trails down at Daytona beach with a 1957 Chrysler 300 to break the record the hemi was a powerful engine in what ever car that Chrysler dropped it in . The 1960s came along a time of sex,drugs,rock n' roll and high performance Chrysler muscle cars powered by the 426 hemi with 425 hp Chrysler knew they had a good engine and all they needed was a light weight chassis to drop this engine into and Chrysler came up with a formula to take this engine and drop it into most of there cars that the compe any introduced like the 1966-1967 dodge chargers and dodge coronets plus Plymouth beleveders and savoys and Chrysler letter series cars like the 300 c,300 B,300 F and more than in the late 1960s dodge offered cars like the 1968-1970 dodge charger and 1968-1970 Plymouth roadrunner and GTX plus the E-body cars like the dodge challenger and Plymouth cuda Chrysler built race versions and the engine became a take no prisoners assault on the muscle car market both in the showrooms of Chrysler dealers and on the race tracks were unfornately the hemi was banned from competition from stock car racing Chrysler could race but they had to do something about the horsepower of there engine because it was fast out doing the competition from ford motor company and GM . Chrysler corporation offered this engine in the winged wonders the Plymouth superbird and dodge charger Daytona plus in a lot high performance coupes that became terrors on the street. The new Hemi of the 21st centry that can be found in cars and trucks like the Chrysler 300 and dodge magnum of 2004 were new hemi cars bring back the hemi in a new way using a Mercedes transmission in an LH platform wich Chrysler engineers labled the new cars for engineering purposes while in a Chrysler engineering lab in 2003 dodge introduced the new hemi in the dodge ram pickup to cancel out the 16-valve 5.9 litre LA 360 magnum V-8 in dodge trucks and Chrysler thought it was time to cancel out the old V-8 that had been around since the 1970s for a new V-8 of 345 cubic inchs and putting out 345 hp in stock tune later in 2006 dodge would introduce a new car the all new dodge charger that came with the new hemi and later SRT would start building hotrod versions of the Hemi for SRT-8 models like the jeep grand Cherokee and Chrysler 300 and dodge charger and dodge magnum . Chrysler built different variants of the hemi engine in high performance tune like in many concept cars were the engine was showed off at shows . The FCA still offers the hemi in there cars and trucks like the new 2019 ram truck and dodge challenger and Chrysler 300 plus new jeep grand Cherokee though the FCA has many different hotrod versions of the hemi challenger like R/T and Hellcat plus Hellcat Redeye and Dodge Challenger SRT Demon wich is a devils hotrod built for the track it comes with a tool box and tooks and spare wheel and slick tires and inside the demon there are performance track pages intergrated into the touch screen for your RPM,quarter mile times,acceleration,Speed though the demon costs of $70,000 and the buyer has to go through a trainers course to learn how to drive and maintain your new demon wich is manatory by the FCA . I love Chrysler and always will Chrysler is the back bone to the U.S and an important part of the American economy for jobs and help with the auto industry . Walter P. Chrysler would be so happy of the company he started over 100 years ago.