Tom Hoover, whose work at Chrysler included development of the legendary Max Wedge and 426 Hemi V-8 engines, the 1970 Plymouth AAR ‘Cuda, and the 1978 Dodge Li’l Red Express truck, has died. Hoover passed away on April 30 after a long illness. He was 85.
-Often credited as the “Father of the Hemi,” Hoover trained as a physicist at Juanita College in his hometown of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. He received his master’s degree from Penn State and later earned a master’s degree in automotive engineering from the University of Michigan while working for Chrysler.
-Hoover joined Chrysler in 1955 just as Carl Kiekhaefer’s Mercury Outboard–sponsored Chrysler 300s were dominating NASCAR stock-car competition with little aid from the manufacturer itself. But while Chrysler was reluctant to go racing, a group of young engineers within the company was eager to hit the track. Hoover became one of the leaders of this group of about eight drag-racing-fanatic engineers that, by 1958, had formed itself into the Ramchargers team. That led to “High and Mighty,” a 1949 Plymouth Business Coupe, which the team campaigned into 1960.
-“Even in those days,” Hoover related in a speech at the Chryslers at Carlisle event excerpted at AllPar, “it became evident that if you really wanted to get serious about setting some national records, participating at the big meets and so forth, you couldn’t do it in a car that you drove to work every day in the winter of Detroit. The two are incompatible.”
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The Ramchargers success with “High and Mighty”, including several national speed records, led in 1961 to the team receiving direct support from Dodge. And by the spring of 1962 that led to the development of a drag-racing performance package for 1962-model Dodges: the Maximum Performance Wedge 413-cubic-inch engine which was soon shortened down to Max Wedge. By 1963, that engine grew to 426 cubic inches.
-While the Max Wedge engine was instantly successful in drag racing, it wasn’t competitive against GM and Ford engines in NASCAR racing. By that time Hoover was head of the Race Engine Group at Chrysler and under the direction of the corporation’s new President, Lynn Townsend, he was tasked with winning the 1964 Daytona 500.
-Although development of the 426 Hemi didn’t start until April of 1963, progress was rapid. The basic idea was to use the Wedge engine’s block with new cylinder heads that took advantage of Chrysler’s successful hemispherical-shaped combustion chambers from earlier engines. In particular they used what were basically the combustion chambers designed for the stillborn “A-311” Indy racing V-8 developed in the early ’50s.
-“For high output and high air-flow configuration we knew the most about and had the most confidence in the Hemi,” Hoover told Hemmings Motor News in 2006. “We recommended in very short 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 straightaway to win the Daytona Beach NASCAR race in February of 196—and we did, with the 426 Hemi.”
-In fact, the Hemi was so successful in NASCAR that Richard Petty’s victory in the 1964 Daytona 500 was but one of nine victories he’d take that year in Plymouths as a he cruised to his first season championship. And it led NASCAR to change its rules for 1965 that effectively banned the Hemi engine and led to Chrysler’s boycott of the series for most of that year.
-But NASCAR changed its rules again and that led Chrysler to develop the 425 “street” Hemi for the 1966 model year in order to homologate the engine for NASCAR competition. Soon the Hemi-powered Dodges and Plymouths became legendary performers on the street and the most cherished (and most valuable) of collectible muscle cars.
-While the Hemi continued to dominate NASCAR—in 1967, Petty won an amazing 27 races driving Plymouths—it was also proving a sensation in drag racing. The 426 Hemi soon dominated the Super Stock classes while supercharged versions running on nitromethane became so overwhelmingly successful that today virtually all Top Fuel and Funny Car engines are based on the 426 Hemi design.
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- 1968 Dodge Charger Hemi Test: “Chrysler Is Flat Out in the Automobile Business Again”
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- The 10 Cars You Must Drive Before You Die
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- 1970 Hemi ‘Cuda with 81 Original Miles Heads to Auction
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Hoover retired from Chrysler in 1979 and went on to work for several other companies before settling back down in his hometown when he was finally done with work.
-What Hoover did was bring enthusiasm with him into the workplace. Under his leadership, a small group of engineers working within the smallest of Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers produced true legends. The greatness they fostered springs to the fore every time a classic Hemi-powered machine is auctioned for big bucks, and it’s the same elixir today’s Chrysler taps to market its current generation of Hemi V-8s.
-Lead image courtesy of Hemmings Motor News; you can read their remembrance of Hoover here.
-from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1OUUFWO
via Agya
