Not Ranked
Naw, it isn't a 289 body with a 427 suspension, it is a lightweight 427 body with a 427 suspension and upgraded chassis, drop dead right now brakes and a raging stonking twisting snarling small block (351 is a "small" block, even at 7 liters?).
This isn't a hybrid, it was a standard line item, special order, from AC under Brian's tutelage. You can look it up in a book.
It is only "small" in nomenclature, that is, not an FE. The block weighs 90+ £'s less and the combined ally heads weigh 50+ £'s less. Just imagine the whole extra person sitting on your front springs and pulling to the outside of any turn, increasing understeer, reducing accelleration times, lengthening brake distances, etc.
You still have proper modern dual wishbone coil spring/shock system, big fenders for big tires, proper radiator sizes for high HP engines...
Cheaper, lighter, faster...
Smaller, lighter, more ratio alloy transmission...
Oh, yeah, did I say cheaper...much cheaper...?
What's not to love?
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Ps:
Certainly you know that the side-oiler changes didn't really fix the BIG PROBLEM with the FE's? Big dia crank/rod journals cause the bearing surface velocity to exceed the shear strength of the oils. Racers know this and grind the crank rod journals down (or just reselects another spec), resize the rod big end dia downwards to match, for instance, a chevy and you have an FE that spins and lives.
Do you think this (or several similar changes) was ever done during the FORD racer days using FEs? Even at Le Mans?
Oh, My! Say it isn't so...they wouldn't dare...that would be (shhhh!)..illegal.
Do you know the dia of the Chrysler hi-po drag racer rods from the middle sixties? Why would that be an interesting data point?
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George Washington
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