Instead of arguing, I think the whole thing could be settled pretty easily.
Not by racing a real D500-1 car - but how about this:
D500-1 motor rated at 295 HP per Krause book
1970 383 4bbl rated at 330 HP per Krause book
Find a cheap '55-'56 Dodge, even a 4dr if thats what's handy (it may be hard
to find a cheap one that has a good solid frame), throw in 70's 383 and 727,
and you should have a car with about the same rear wheel horsepower as the
D500-1 car. It will shift faster too. That should be good enough to run
some 1/4 mile ETs with and see how close it is to the figures for the
original car. Horsepower is horsepower, it doesn't care what kind of engine
it comes out of. I didn't compare torque numbers, but you might be able to
play with the intake and cam to get it close enough.
And you could probably build the car ready to test for under $5000 including
a donor car for the 383 and trans (just using a good runner that otherwise
would be a candidate for a demo derby, no high dollar engine rebuilds here).
It probably won't be pretty, but you don't need to paint it to run 1/4 mile
times with it. It just has to be complete so the weight is about the same.
You could probably even go so far as to build it with a manual trans, the
three-speeds aren't too bad to buy usually, but it would cost a little more
and take some more work to get it installed correctly.
The idea is with a few good runs it should become evident if the times for
the original car are even possible. If you can't get close to them with a
newer engine of comparable power and an automatic transmission speeding up
your shifting, it would seem to indicate the old figures are exaggerated or
in error. If you can run them off consistently or even beat them pretty
easily with an unrebuilt high milage motor crammed into your car, then it
would seem reasonable to me to conclude the original figures were
legitimate. It would also be a stepping stone to building a correct D500-1
engine and trans combo to test with, if someone wanted to go so far as to
invest in the money to do so.
When you're done, paint it up as a clone of a Nascar '56 Dodge, throw it on
eBay or take it to a high end auctioneer, and maybe you'll come out ahead on
it.
Bill K.
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