[sammyg2]

The story I heard Garlits tell was, at first he hated the 426 hemi and wanted to stick with his 392 based engines.
He was frustrated with the tuning and couldn't get the kind of power that he was told was possible.
So he got frustrated and cranked the timing up to 50 degrees advanced in a attempt to blow it up and destroy it, but it set a world record.

When Don “Big Daddy” Garlits' first 426 Hemi engines hit the track in Swamp Rat VIII and Swamp Rat X, the results were hardly encouraging.

“I carried over every aspect of the 392 tune,” says Garlits, “and that was the mistake. The 426 had large combustion chambers, 176cc to the 392’s 110cc. It took much longer for the flame front to move across the bigger chamber. Plus the brute of an engine didn’t even realize that there was some detonation going on!”

Garlits was well aware that the 392 was threatened with significant ignition lead timing approaching 40 degrees. Sometimes, there were exceptions for the venerable iron design.

“I’ll never forget Bakersfield,” he says. “I had Vance Hunt in the next round. He had borrowed a 392 from Don “Mad Dog” Cook, as his 392 had expired while winning the round. He said to Cook, ‘Do you mind if we put the lead up to 40 degrees for this run with Garlits? We would really like to beat him. It would put a nice feather in our hat. Of course, we will get you another block next week, when it splits the wall.’ Cook responded, ‘You boys can back it up if you like, because it’s already got 42 degrees in it!’ That is why they called him ‘Mad Dog,’ he was crazy!”


The “Acceleration” version of the Hemi in 1964 sported dual 4-barrel carbs.
Garlits eventually dialed in up to 50 degrees timing and quickly set a top-speed record.

Garlits also tried the 392 cam profile but soon realized the engine was begging for deeper breaths.

“Bruce Crower was the driving force behind the cam development for me,” says Garlits. “Bruce was one smart cookie, when it came to cams and engineering.

“Of course, as soon as we found out that the engine was practically indestructible, we really got after it,” continues Garlits. “However we were always restrained by the fact that we were sitting behind the monster. We used to call them the ‘fire dragon.’ Even if it didn’t blow up, you could still drop a valve and put the blower in your face. The Rear Engine car changed all this, and then we really got the full potential out of the 426.

“In my humble opinion, the Chrysler/Dodge 426 Hemi engine, was/is the best production engine ever manufactured by the automotive industry!” sums up Garlits. “No engine, to my knowledge, has the ability to produce so much raw power and still stay together. It will stand forever, as a monument to the engineering ability of the Ramchargers and their team.”