Quote:
Originally Posted by tirod
And the conversation focuses on what's under the hood - when the record shows that the 289 won the championship.
Balance is more important than engine. If the chassis can't put 550 hp or 600 ftlbs of torque down to the pavement, you get exactly what everyone describes - tires spinning in third gear at 60mph.
That is NOT something you want to happen turning in to a tight corner in traffic on cool pavement at dusk as the dew is forming. It IS exactly why the big blocks were termed dangerous - don't forget, Shelby sold every 289 built, but it took 18 months longer to push the 427/428 off the lots. They were not considered user friendly. Bill Cosby shipped his back. Smart man.
Read very carefully, many of the 500 hp proponents aren't using this as a daily driver. But the small blocks were - and still are. They didn't abruptly break away and lose traction because of driver error.
If you need a testosterone injection on the weekend, a big block will certainly do it, if you want to use the car daily, consider carefully. Balance is much more of what cars have now, not brute levels of horsepower stuffed into a vintage chassis. What good is 550 hp if you can only use it 5% of the time? Better to size the motor for what you can do 85% of the time, and develop the chassis to use what it has.
Check the lap times of the day, the 427 was a bare few seconds ahead on tracks - it's poor handling from traction limited it's potential for what it was built to do - race on road courses. Ford just needed a counterpoint to the 427 Vette, and they got it, another overweight poor handling bull in a china shop.
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I'm sorry, but most of that is just plain rubbish. An iron block 427 has pretty much perfect balance (mine is 48/52 front/rear). The myth that big block Cobras are nose heavy is just that, a myth. The reason that Shelby didn't race the 427s was because they weren't homologated and focus moved to the GT40.
I'm pretty certain that given the same conditions, the same track and equal drivers, a 427 would comfortably beat a 289 every time.
I've driven original spec Kirkham 289 and 427 back to back and the coil sprung chassis is in a different league to the leaf sprung 289.
Lights blue touch paper and stands back.
Paul