The 1st time I saw a Hemi was......

[hammersley]

I was in High School and working at my uncle's gas station in North Central PA, it was the fall of 1964. We had a mechanic, who was nick-named Skinny. He actually weighed over 300 lbs, but since he was over 6'5", he wasn't fat. He was 19 and came to work that fall with a new Plymouth hemi. Man was that car something. But by Spring he volunteered for the Army and wound up in SE Asia. Needless to say, he didn't make it home. I never saw him or his car again. His name wasn't Private Malone, like that great song, but somebody has his car, and I've always wondered who.

 

[wcaldwell]

Probably around '66 when my dad was working as a tire store service manager. He bought a '57 Plymouth 2-Door from one of the guys he worked with in Sacramento. The guy had shoe-horned a hemi into this Plymouth. Had to remove the heater blower assembly from the firewall and really crank up the torsion bars. What a screamer that Plymouth was. (I was probably about 14 or 15) .

 

[Shovelhead]

In '75 just started turning wrenches for a living out of H. S.

Guy I worked with had a '70 Hemi 'Cuda.

Orange with a black vinyl top, bench seat, column shifted auto trans. No A/C, no P/S. He installed a tunnel ram with two 4bbls, and a WILD cam. but we couldn't get it to idle below 2500rpm , not much good for a stock auto trans. (It didn't last long)but MY GAWD it would go like stink, and sounded at full boogie.

Guy also had a 440 GTX, and his daily driver was a Plymouth Fury ex-police intercepter with a 383.

He also had a 392 hemi sitting on his garage floor.



I wonder whatever happened to all his wonderful toys?

 

[QRTRHRS]

I had a chance at a 66' Plymouth Belvidere was it? Never had much money back then so it didn't happen. Probably would have killed myself anyway. Those were sweet times for Mopar.



I worked for a contractor who bought a 70' Plymouth Road Runner Superbird with the 440. He was a good guy as he let my buddy and I take it out one night after having it a whole three days. When we pulled into a burger hangout, the chics were screaming. Talk about an "extention".

 

[klenger]

In the mid 60's, a guy at church had a Chrysler New Yorker with a 426 Hemi. He said it would turn 9K.

 

[78repowerwagon]

I first saw one at the nostalgia drags in Wentzville, Mo. It was a 65 Plymouth altered wheel base car.



I spotted one on the back row at a repair shop in 88. Needless to say I purchased it as soon as I found the owner.

 

[FFutch]

About 10 years ago...

... I was driving past a small general store and saw a sign that said "Hemi for sale-$900". So I stopped thinking it was a 426. It was in sevaral different boxes and the distributer was in the back(353or392). If it had been a 426 I would have jumped on it... Doug

 

[tgbol]

Is this limited to Elephants? My dad brought home a car that a dealer loaned him to drive in '57 ---1957 Chrysler 300--

as the years progressed he brought home the 1963 Chrysler 300 pace car (413 and 4 speed) a 1963 Plymouth with a turbine. and 1965 Dodge Coronet 426 -4 speed

 

[Fireman Dave]

Who else had wood? Oo. Oo. These are the glory days we're talking about. Even when I was in HS (graduated in '81) we had all kinds of great iron still on the street (including Fords and GMs). Me? I was running around in a '70 440+6 GTX in HS. What great days those were. Now it's all rice burners. Most of the kids these days have no clue about what was. I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll ever be able to get excited about a 4 cylinder. Give me a big block or give me death!



I remember thinking about how the Cummins is the Hemi of it's day for the Ram when I ordered it. The percentage of option cost for it is right about the same as it cost to option a Hemi in 1970. If we could just go back to those days - how many of us would have checked off that box for the Elephant and somehow came up with the extra cash for that expensive $700. option! In my book, the Hemi is the most revolutionary and awesome engine ever made available to the public in a street car.

 

[JHansen]

Dave you lucky bugger........

Six Barrel GTX... ... . must have been nice! I had to settle for a '74 318-powered Charger... . still have what's left of the old girl rusting away at Mom and Dad's place . I love that body style... ... and I keep telling myself I'm gonna get 'er going again-but in reality it'll probably never happen... ... .



Jason

 

[Karl2500]

Around 1982 I was 15 and worked at the local boat yard during the summer. We had this old steel cabin cruser that the owner told me to tune up. It took me half a day to take apart the living room peel back the carpet and find the engines. but when I did I found two Hemis. I don't know what size they were but I do remember they had dual points and huge 4 barrels on em. I was amazed how fast that heavy old steel tub was when the boss took her out and opened her up.

totally off the subject later that week we had a boat with twin sbc's with a complaint that one didn't rev as high as the other. we took her out, the boss was running both engines flat out and had me down by the engines looking for anything unusual. I was amazed at the huge amounts of fuel pouring into the quadrajets, then right before my eyes the engine blew. a loud bang and it sounded like dumbells in a metal cement mixer. The boss lept down from the flybridge and accused me of doing it! I wish I had stayed with that job, I was supposed to learn diesel repair as soon as I mastered the gassers. The boss was a jerk sometimes but he had a rep. for building real fast Cat powered fishing boats.

 

[Joe G.]

The first hemi I saw? It was in the early 50s. Two barrel carb on it in a big heavy Chrysler. '51 or '52 model I think. No one had any idea what those things would be like later. It hauled that old iron pile around pretty good but it sure was no hot rod. The '55 Chrysler 300 is the car that woke everybody up to the potential of the hemi.

 

[DavidGardner]

First hemi

I am like Joe G. first hemi I ever saw was in a 53 Chrysler 4 dr. new yorker. What a sled. The transmission was a 3 speed that was controlled by a torqe converter that had a clutch. It was called a safety clutch and if you forgot to push it in before stopping it was no big deal. the torque confverter would take over and the engine would not die. The engine was not that strong in stock form but a lot of them started to show up in dragsters of the day

. They were highly modified with a lot of valve and intake work and were very succesfull on the drag strip. O. K. now I have shown my age. (61) But I still think the old days of real hot rods were in the 50,s and 60,s . I love my Cummins and just can"t get enthused about the rice burners. Nothing beats the sound of a real American V-8.

Dave Gardner



Rember if it aint broke your just not trying hard enough!

 

[tgbol]

The Studebaker that we ran at Bonneville from '72 to '85 had a blown 55 Chrysler Windsor 301 with 354 hemi heads on it. The car ran 249 on 75% nitro.

 

[me4osu]

First one I saw was around 1970 (I was 5yrs old). It was an industrial 330 on an irrigation pump in Kansas.



The first SWEET hemi I saw was a 426 in a '70 Superboid when I was about 7 or 8. The memory still makes me pitch a tent.

 

[Bob Beauchaine]

Listen up "chillin" I owned and drove a 1952 DeSoto with a hemi in it when I was in High School - graduated in 1960. I never lost a race - stop light to stop light with it. I loved that car and had a great time in the front seat and the back seat



My uncle had a DeSoto Adventurer? with a 396 and 2 4's - you talk about pure Detroit Muscle.



Bob

 

[RustyJC]

57 Chrysler 300. Not to give away my age, but it was brand new when I saw it!



Rusty

 

[JSmith]

My first HEMI was in 1961,uncle had a Chrysler and told my dad it was missing. My dad said it needed BLOWING OUT. Dad took it past 100mph. I was 6yrs old. I love HEMIS. In high school,dad worked for a GMC dealer with a Plymouth and AMC dealer next door. On the lot at the Plymouth dealer was a red GTX 426 HEMI. The salesman started it for me to hear,I was 15yrs old. I will give my left n~t, no, my wife for a Roadrunner,GTX,Cuda,Challenger,Duster,Belvadeer,1968 to 1971 only!

 

[HEMI®Dart]

In the eary 80's I was at the Mopar Expo. A guy trailered in a '71 Hemi Challenger. He fired it and drove off the trailer. The ground shook. Later in the day I overheard him telling another guy that he beat a 427 'Vette with it.