I think we all understand from a wide assortment of things
that we have heard and read over the years, that the horsepower figures that the
factories advertised for their car were at least mildly adjusted, sometimes up
to be competitive in the public opinion marketplace and sometimes down to come
in under insurance company limits or with acknowledgment of drag racing 'stock'
horsepower to weight ratios. All these adjustments were done to gain some
advantage in the market place.
An eye-opener on this subject was received by me at the
engineer's reunion I alluded to recently. Bob Brown, one of the Chrysler
factory engineers who was directly involved with hand assembling many of the
race engines (including the engine in my 300F Special in front of him that
evening) stated it this way: "The advertised horsepower ratings were
TOTALLY irrelevant to the figures we got off the dynamometer. They were
strictly a figment of the imagination of the marketing department."
That takes it to a whole 'nother level for
me.
Wayne
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