What If...

I've been glancing at a number of articles this week in various magazines and inadvertently they all had the theme of "what if...". The articles ranged from the last-minute fallout of the Ford-Ferrari deal way back in 1963, to the beginning of the oil embargo which started this month back in 1973, to muscle car engines that were planned and even built, but never saw production. It got me to thinking about alternative realities, or what would have happened if...


One outcome we know for certain after Enzo Ferrari pulled the plug at the last minute on Henry Ford and the deal they literally had in writing back in 1963; the Ford GT-40. Now, what if that deal went through? The proposal was, for a price of $10 million dollars (this is back in 1963, remember?), Ford would have owned half of Ferrari. My belief is, there wouldn't have been a GT-40 built, but instead perhaps a Ford sports car body with Ferrari drive-train. I think it would have been similar to the short marriage Ford had with Alejandro de Tomaso and his Pantera that was imported by Lincoln-Mercury in 1973. If anything, if that 1963 deal had become reality, we probably would have prancing horses on Mustangs instead of galloping ones.

If you ever want to seriously set foot into "what if..." territory, look no further than some of the muscle car engines that Detroit had planned, but never built back in the 1960's through the early 70's. Some of these motors are more well-known than others, like the Ball-Stud Hemi that Chrysler hoped to put into production sometime between 1971 and 1973. More powerful than the 440 Magnum running with a single Carter Thermo-quad carburetor, it even had lower compression (9.5:1) to run on unleaded fuel. It would have been a fantastic high performance motor for the early '70's. Unfortunately, due to financial restrictions and government pressure, only a handful were built and it is believed only one is still in existence today.

But let's dig deeper. Ever hear of the 421 SOHC engine that Pontiac was experimenting with back in 1964? Or how about the 1969 Plymouth Weslake DOHC engine? Or perhaps the Oldsmobile DOHC W43 engine developed in 1969 in case the muscle car wars really got intense? Let's start with the Pontiac.

This mystery engine is probably the easiest to shed light on. Most likely prompted by its development of the now-famous Pontiac OHC six cylinder engine of the mid-60's, the GM division built three different experimental SOHC 421 CID V8  engines in early 1964. According to the engineers who worked on the project, the SOHC 421 engines produced around 625 hp and were capable of turning 7,000 rpm. One version of the engine featured camshafts driven off the front of the engine, another design had the cams driven by gears off the back of the engine. Rumor has it, at least one of these engines survives under the hood of an engineer’s personal Pontiac.

Moving onto Plymouth. This one gets a little more complicated; It’s unknown whether this project was purely for racing, or Plymouth had the intent to offer the motor in a street car at some point. Following the 1968 season, Richard Petty announced he was leaving Chrysler and going to Ford for the 1969 NASCAR season. The money allocated for Petty was used to develop the Plymouth Indy DOHC V8. Design work began in February 1969 and running engines were provided to Andy Granatelli’s STP race team less than 90 days later.
The designer of the special cylinder heads was Harry Weslake, a British engineer best known for his expertise in gas flow through internal combustion engines.Unfortunately, the engine lacked top-end horsepower necessary to compete at the high speed oval tracks, but it had plenty of bottom-end torque which made it quite competitive on the short oval. In fact, Art Pollard drove the Plymouth-Westlake engine to victory at the 200-mile Indy car race at Dover, Delaware on August 24, 1969. This would turn out to be the only victory for Plymouth in the history of Indy Car racing.

Finally, the Oldsmobile DOHC W43 or what is more commonly referred to as the "doomsday" muscle car engine. As part of the development of the 455 V-8, Olds engineers wanted to take the design of the engine as far as possible. The ultimate version added a set of dual overhead camshaft cylinder heads to the mighty engine. A gear drive supported by roller bearings in an aluminum gear case at the front of the motor spun the cams, while a drive-shaft was used in the standard camshaft position to transmit motion to the oil pump and distributor.
Toward the end of 1969, engineers dyno tested the DOHC W43, built with a high (even by late 60's standards) 12.2:1 compression ratio, and recorded a very flat (and fat) torque curve. Olds engineers recorded peak power at a whopping 700 horsepower at close to 7000 rpm. But in January 1970, General Motors President Edward N. Cole  announced that all GM divisions would lower the compression of their motors so 91 octane unleaded fuel could be used, and development stopped on the DOHC Olds. Can you imagine a 700 horse 4-4-2? Or what other manufacturers would've come out with to combat this engine? It makes ones skin tingle.

In my opinion, much of this development seed is planted by racing, and drag racing specifically. One of the biggest "what if's..." is TV Tommy Ivo's “Showboat”. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Tommy Ivo, he acted in series of television shows, some for a few episodes, others for a season or two, in the 1950's when he was a kid. While Ivo was no James Dean he was a great self-promoter and drag racing fanatic. After his TV career dried up, he build a twin-engined dragster that set a number of records. But that wasn’t enough. In 1961, Ivo (now nicknamed TV Tommy) created a beast that drag racing has never again seen the likes of.  With four (yes four) Buick “nailhead” V8 engines, Ivo’s all-wheel drive dragster was a monster that he named the “Showboat”. The engines on the left side drove the front wheels, while the engines on the right powered the rear wheels. The net total was1,856 cubic inches of displacement generating about 2,000 horsepower. Concerned that four-engined cars might become the norm, the NHRA relegated the “Showboat” to an exhibition class and limited Top Fuel cars to one engine. The one-off dragster faded into the history books when the Detroit manufacturers started getting heavily involved with exhibition classes, mainly A/FX. But can you imagine if 4-engine dragsters became the norm? Would this have led to six or even eight engine diggers? It boggles the mind.

Until next time, peace out.
Dave