[Jeff Higgins]

I separate the mid to late '60's to early '70's "muscle cars" into two distinctly different categories. The first includes all of the hopped-up wedge motors. These include small and big block GM, Ford, and MOPAR that were no more than utilitarian passenger car and light truck motors. All of these manufacturers offered upgraded versions with bigger cams, carbs, etc. It was a really cheap, and largely ineffective way to provide "performance". But they really didn't.

My other category is where they got serious about it. NASCAR and NHRA competition driven development. Mainly big blocks, with the notable exception of Ford with their Cleveland head small blocks. Here is where we see the all-time king, The Hemi, along with those chasing it, the canted valve "semi-hemi" big block Chev "Rat" motors and the Ford 428 and 429. All of these dispensed with the horribly inefficient wedge head design, going to a full hemi or semi-hemi canted valve arrangement, allowing for a true "cross flow" valve arrangement and much improved breathing.

These NASCAR and NHRA "homologation" motors were the real deal. The very top end were hand assembled by small groups of dedicated racers, like the famous Dodge Ramchargers. Their 426 Hemi was factory rated at 425 horsepower at 5,000 rpm. Which was entirely true. That's exactly what it did. Except, well, with its solid lifter cam, massive ports, forged lower end assemblies, and meticulous tuning, it is said that not a single Hemi left their shop that would not rev to 7,500 rpm while making in excess of 600 horsepower. And Ford and GM were certainly chasing them, never far behind.

Anyone saying that performance of that era is a myth is correct, insofar as cars in my first category. On the other hand, the cars in my second category were absolutely the real deal. While I never had the good fortune to own one (all of my cars were of the wedge motor persuasion), I did have opportunity to drive a '70 Road Runner belonging to the father of two brothers with whom I drag raced. It was a factory Hemi four speed car with a Dana rear end featuring 4.11 gears. We put my slicks on it (from my '69 383 four speed Super Bee, which ran high 11's at about 110 mph) after he asked me to make a few passes "to see what it would do".

His car had no trouble breaking the 11 second barrier. It ran high 10 second passes, up into the low 120 mph range. Until track officials made me stop... In those days, 11 seconds was the barrier under which cars needed a bunch of safety stuff, like a Lakewood bellhousing (on four speed cars), improved rear axles (Strange Engineering were actually specified), driveshaft hoop, roll bar, etc. His car, of course, being a dead stock street car, had none of that. So, we just put his street tires back on it, he ran it into the low 13's, and everyone was happy. But what a lesson as far as what suitable tires did for that car.

Not very much modified (restricted by NHRA rules), SS/A (manual) and SS/AA (automatic) cars were by that time running high 9 second passes up into the upper 130 mph range. These were Hemi Darts and Barracudas (early "A" bodied cars, not the later "E" bodied cars) along with the 428/429 Mustangs and 427 Cameros. Granted, all pretty limited production, but they were for sale to the general public, and were "street legal". The pointy end of the spear for sure, but they were manufactured, they did exist. And they really were pretty goddamned fast, even by today's standards.