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Tom Hoover, the GOD FATHER of the HEMI
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Posted by: The OLE MAN

As a member of the celebrated Ramchargers and godfather of the legendary and powerful Chrysler HEMI engine, Tom Hoover has played an important role in the evolution of drag racing and its subsequent influence on muscle car culture. Hoover is considered a legend by some who are considered drag racing legends themselves. We recently had the opportunity to talk with him about the "golden era" of racing, when vehicle manufacturers were building specialty race-only models which placed guys like Tom at the forefront. Here Tom talks about his days as a Chrysler engineer, racing, and the Chrysler racing engine program.

May 12, 2004

Mopar: When did you begin your career at Chrysler?

Tom Hoover: 1955.

Mopar: I've been reading a lot about you and you seem to be billed as the godfather of the HEMI engine.

Tom Hoover: The 426.

Mopar: What was the first engine program you were assigned to?

Tom Hoover: The first major program that I got involved in was the adaptation of the Bendix Electrojector electronically managed individual cylinder port fuel injection system. It was released on the 1958 model year, L series.

Mopar: How did the Max Wedge engine program come about?

Tom Hoover: Well that was later and it came about after some very high-level management shuffling in 1960 or so. Mr. Townsend became President. He was an accountant and was involved in getting the company stabilized and sorted out. Luckily, he had a couple of teenage boys and his sons informed him straight away that the product he was offering for sale to the public had a serious image problem among young buyers. In those days the Pontiacs were getting most of the ink and of course, Chevrolet was involved in the high-performance racing, drag, street, and so on.

Basically Mr. Townsend issued a decree from on high that something needed to be done about this and quickly. I had already been involved at that point in one of the first successful passenger car engine race programs - the Hyper Pack for the Slant Six which was introduced in the compact Valiants in the 1960 model year. I did the engine development work for that package and it was very successful in NASCAR. In fact, we blew the Fords, Corvairs, and the Volvos totally into the weeds.

My view of it is that the engineering establishment at Chrysler at the time wasn't all that interested in racing. They felt it was a bit of a burden to take on the Max Wedge program that Mr. Townsend had in mind. Luckily, I just happened to be "standing there" so I was made the race program coordinator for the engineering division. Since I had considerable experience at the drags and we had completed the successful slant six program, we set out immediately with a blank change request signed by Mr. Townsend himself, and we set out to make a national drag racing performance package. I don't remember whether it was called a B-body at that point or not, but it was the mid-size Dodge and the mid-size Plymouth. I'm trying to think what they were called in those days, Belvedere? What was the Dodge? Coronet I guess. So we did, we began that program in earnest in October of 1961. The cars were available for sale in the spring of '62 as a '62 model. They were successful right off the bat. They would run 110 in the quarter or something close to that right off the showroom floor! The tires and the axle ratio and the skill of the driver would determine the elapsed time it would go at that speed. They became totally dominant in the racing year for 1963. In fact, they were undefeated. It was the car to buy if you wanted to do some acceleration trials. So, that was the Max Wedge story. I don't recall totally how many of those were built, maybe 4,000, in that range.

Mopar: In regards to the horsepower and torque how superior was the 426 Max Wedge compared to the Ford, Chevy, and Pontiac engines of the period?

Tom Hoover: Ford wasn't really competitive. So it isn't really worth talking about them. They had a 406 displacement six barrel that wasn't competitive. The Chevrolets had the 409 at the time and then by '63 everyone had gone to 426 or 427. Our advantage was the combination of the torque flight transmission and the broad torque range of our Max Wedge race B engine. The stock classes were required to run on tires that weren't allowed to be more than seven inches wide so that getting them launched for the first couple car lengths was a very tedious matter. By the time the '63 models were out we had come to the realization that the torque flight automatic did a good job helping to get the cars off the line and so the cars had no equal at the drags. In terms of what power level people really made, uh, I would guess the Cross Ram Wedges had more torque than the others. Certainly the Pontiac had equal power but less torque. Again, it was the combination of the engine and the transmission. The GM automatics simply weren't able to match the torque flight transmissions.

Mopar: Despite its success on the drag strip, why did the 426 Max Wedge fall short as a NASCAR engine?

Tom Hoover: It's fundamentally related to the cylinder head design. It's not that it was totally because it was a Wedge head but rather it was a matter of the Wedge head being located outboard on the cylinder bores which tended to shroud the valves. So, although we had a port area and good valve size they simply didn't flow the air that the Chevrolet and Pontiac Wedge engines did. Also, we joined NASCAR a little later in the game so we had to play some catch-up. As you suggest, the Wedge engines in NASCAR just weren't up to the task.

Mopar: Did the NASCAR program lead to the birth of the 426 HEMI in 1964?

Tom Hoover: Absolutely, it came down to us, to our level, in the form of a question. It was in the late winter, early spring of 1963 when the word came down, "what would it take to win Daytona Beach NASCAR in 1964?" The meeting was convened by Bill Roger, he was a vice president in engineering. Now whether or not he was the only vice president, I don't remember. There may have been a couple of vice presidents. We met in his office about, uh, I don't know 5 or 6 of us. Myself, a guy named Don Moore from the engine lab who was one of my hero's. He had been involved in the Indianapolis program, lets' see, production 331 displacement early HEMI's, back in the early 50's while I was off enjoying the pleasures of the Korean War. He and Bob Cahill were there and Bill Weertman, another colleague of long-standing in those days. Bill Roger posed the question, "what would it take to win Daytona Beach next December?" For high output and high air-flow configuration we knew the most about and had the most confidence in the HEMI. The last production year for the early HEMI had been 58'. We recommended in very sort order that we adapt the HEMI to the raised B engine. Jack Charipar and some of his people made a presentation then to the executive council shortly thereafter. We got the approval. So, beginning in April of 63' we set out straight-away to win Daytona Beach NASCAR race in February of 64', and we did with the 426 HEMI

The OLE MAN

Posted by: Mr. P

While I agree MoPar had lots and lots and lots of success in drag racing, this guy fails to even recognize who his real competition was on the NASCAR tracks. He hardly even mentions Ford, but hey, history does.

This is about as biased a link in favor of MoPar as I've ever seen, but wow, there sure is a lot of reference to Ford here, and by my count, it looks like Ford had the most wins.
http://aerowarriors.com/naw.html

BTW, this web page has many very interesting links, and photos.

During the 1960's, which is from 1960 through and including 1969, Ford Motor Company had the majority of wins, by a wide margin, in NASCAR. Their wedge head ran a hell of a lot better than whats-his-name would ever admit, even though the 427 Ford was "the" named target for the 426 hemi panic project.

The MoPar wedge did not exactly "dominate" in NASCAR. The hemi did dominate (which means it won the majority of races) during two years (2 years) in the 1960's. Wonder who won all the rest????

Ole Man, I found the writeup to be very intersting, and obviously based on the drag racing circuit, and not necessarily on NASCAR endurance racing, but call the guy on the phone, and tell him to acknowledge the world ain't flat. Remind him his best engineering feature was getting a pay check to Richard Petty.

Now having ranted, I certainly take nothing away from the hemi motor at all. It's a beast for sure, and it was more powerful than the Ford 427 but the Ford did manage wins against it. When the Boss 429 came along, it matched the hemi and there was no apparant advantage with either motor, except Ford managed to stop the "domination" the hemi saw in 1966 and 1967.

The NASCAR battle between Ford and Chrysler in those days is one of the most fascinating battles between manufacturers ever. On the drag racing circuit, Ford really never tossed enough money at the issue to make much of a spash. Their 427 Thunderbolt program showed what they could do if they wanted to, but the money trail dried up right along with any chance of development on the SOHC 427 Cammer or the Boss motors.

Thanks for posting the note. Check out the link I posted, there's a treasure trove of MoPar stuff there.

regards,
Mr. P

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