The legendary Mopar street hemi was only available from 1966 to 1971. It went out in a riot of DayGlo colors and stripes, but it arrived stealthily. The only way to identify that this 1966 Satellite coupe had 843 lbs of “King Kong” under its hood was via a couple of small badges on its front fenders and a discreet “426” on its little stand-up hood “ornament”. Stealthy, and ready to take on all comers.
color photos of an original survivor
You probably know the hemi origin story by now, but just in case, it arrived in 1964 as strictly a racing engine; a madly successful one at that. Richard Petty won his first NASCAR Grand National title with one that year. Ford protested, and the hemi was banned for 1965, and Chrysler boycotted NASCAR. The solution was to offer a street version, so that it was a legitimate “stock car”.
That involved taming it considerably; its 500-550 hp in racing tune was now down to 425 (gross) hp @5000 rpm, and a mighty 490 ft.lbs of torque at a quite high 4000 rpm. A milder cam, cast iron exhaust headers, lower compression ratio, a conventional intake manifold crowned by two 625 fcm Carter AFB four barrel carbs, among other changes. Yes, the hemi could breathe, thanks to its 2.250″ intake valves and 1.94″ exhausts, and smooth ports to go with them. That was the whole point of a hemi, of course.
The downside was the weight of those huge cast iron heads, and their cost. The hemi option, with mandatory HD suspension and brakes, was priced at $1105 (about $10k in 2022 dollars). Not exactly cheap.
As a point of comparison, Ford’s FE 427 had 2.03″ intakes and 1.65 exhausts. Chevy’s answer to the hemi was its 427 big block, with staggered “porcupine valves” that made room for 2.19″ intakes and 1.89″ exhausts. The Ford 427 was a heroic last step of the FE’s development, but it could go no further; it took the limited production 429 Boss to keep up with the other two.
According to one source, the street hemi actually made 433.5 hp on the dyno, and 472 ft.lbs. But that’s in gross numbers too; as installed (net), it was rated at 350 hp in the 1971 brochure, although its state of tune might have been blunted just a wee bit by then. But 350 net hp in today’s world is…middling, at best.
So before we get to the hemi’s acceleration stats, two things to keep in mind: this apparently was a legitimately stock car, unlike the heavily-massaged Pontiacs that infiltrated the magazines at the time. And it came backed by the Torqueflite automatic and the standard 3.23;1 rear axle, hardly what a street or drag racer would pick, with its shift to 3rd not coming on until 82 mph. That did give it a top speed of 130 though.
Since the hemi’s torque peak came in fairly high, it was more impressive at higher speeds. It’s 0-60 time of 7.1 seconds is far from stellar; its run to 100 in 15.8 seconds gives a better idea. The 1/4 mile was dispatched in a very consistent 14.5 seconds @95 mph. It took feathering the throttle at take off to keep the relatively grippy Goodyear Blue Streak tires from turning into a cloud of smoke. But once under way, the hemi pulled hard. Given the Satellite’s curb weight of 3940 lbs, and its tested weight of 4350 lbs (two aboard plus instruments), it needed to.
The street hemi was well-tamed; driving it around town, there was no indication that there wasn’t a slant six or small V8 under the hood. It’s just when the throttle went down hard and the secondaries kicked in…
The problem was stopping it; the large “police” 11″ drum brakes were a disappointment. not so much for fading but for the rears locking up. This was because of the lack of a weight-sensing proportioning valve, a little tidbit Detroit avoided like the plague. The result was the inevitable loss of control.
Handling around town was ok, but of course the Mopar power steering lacked road feel. Brisk cornering on rural roads “induced a degree of body roll and tire protest out of keeping with other aspects of the car’s behavior.” A canyon carver it was not going to be, with that heavy lump of cast iron over the front wheels.
The interior had two “blunders”; a console with chromed/bright ribbed top surface that created blinding glare under certain sun angles, and a tachometer mounted under the dash at the front of that console. The Satellite’s doors must have gotten “blown off” in an earlier street race, because they would not close without two hard slams.
The question was posed as to who was going to shell out for a street hemi? Chrysler responded with “… the 426 hemi was developed for a growing market market of new car buyers—especially those who maintain an active interest in sanctioned, off-highway timed trials”. You can interpret that as you like, but yes, the number showing up at the drag strips was growing quickly.
If I could go back in time and have any new hemi, it would be to 1966 and one of these, or a Dodge version. And take off the “hemi” badges.
Was the Hemi difficiult to keep in tune on the street? I’ve read a couple of books that made that claim.
When I lived in Detroit in the early ’90s and got to know some guys that street raced on Woodward back in the late’60s/early’70s I heard that the 440 Magnum was generally thought to be a more consistent motor in the stoplight drags. I was told that the Hemi could be great, but was finicky to keep in tune and that the Magnum’s greater low down torque made it more usable. The Chevy guys also told me that they generally feared the 440s over Hemis for the same reasons.
I did once ride in a Hemi powered E Body Cuda, and was not that impressed, as it had a lot less low down than my BBC and a top end which, whilst impressive, was about the same. Of course, it may have not been perfectly tuned, so YMMV. Of course it did sound wonderful doing its thing!
A friend’s father bought a new 68 Charger R/T with a 440. He once told me that he found himself at a stoplight one day next to an identical Charger, but with the hemi. The way he told the story was “We looked at each other and both had the same idea. I had him up to about 80, but after that the hemi just started walking away from me.”
That’s kind of what I gleaned – that the Hemi was really strong at the top end, but that the 440s and BBCs would have it off the line. The cure for that was to gear the Hemi really low, but then you had to be really careful to not blow the tires off, were changing gear more often (losing time with a 4 speed) and it was revving its head off at freeway speeds. I wonder if the gearing on your father’s 440 was a bit longer than his rival’s?
The Hemi was more attuned to NASCAR, where it could use all that breathing.
IMHO the BBC was a good compromise – great low end torque, even with square port heads and good enough breathing to keep going at higher revs.
My very anti American iron exotic car dealer friend drove my 427/425 Corvette and described it as having the bottom end push of a Bentley turbo R and the top end rush of a Ferrari…
BTW, maybe you should do a DCOAL on your father’s cars – sounds like he had some very cool machinery!
Sorry to rehash this same anecdote, but the story is that savvy street racers would try to race a Mopar Hemi from a standing start. The specific car most often mentioned was the hot, 375hp, L78 396. That engine up against a Hemi from a stand-still would win because the Hemi didn’t make the most horsepower and torque until well into the rpm band (typical of a race engine). By the time the Hemi’s real power came on, the Chevelle’s lead could not be overcome.
Now, from a rolling start, it was another matter.
I am endlessly amused by Detroit’s penchant for putting the tachometer on the console under the dash, where it was in no danger of distracting anyone. And a Hemi is one of a handful of American engines of this time that could have used more than 6,000 rpm on the dial as well.
My mother’s 64 Cutlass put its tach in the very same spot. I remember reading road tests making the same complaint these guys made, but as an pre-teen front seat passenger, I liked it there because I had a much better view of it than anything on the dash. Not that it mattered, with the 2 speed automatic and the car being mainly employed for grocery and church runs.
Or they put it on the hood, where you had to look through a (hopefully clean) windshield to see it.
Holden did it with the HK in ’68. It was a once model deal as the HT sucessor had it in the dash.
Sheesh, with those slab sides (especially in the rear quarters) does that thing look like a shoebox. Maybe it’s the camera angles and/or high quality of the images, but I sure don’t remember the ’66-’67 B-body Mopar coupes being that square. I think I’d go with a Dodge Coronet, instead.
Regardless, I agree that, for a legitimate street car (if not a true daily-driver), the early Street Hemi is the one to get. I vividly recall a test of a later E-body Hemi-Cuda and, man, was it lambasted as being a terrible car to drive. The reviewer specifically compared it to an earlier test of a Hemi Road Runner with an automatic and bench seat (compared to the Cuda’s low buckets and pistol-grip 4-speed) and said the difference was like night and day.
And, as someone else mentioned, Hemis were very maintenance intensive. IIRC, taking off the valve covers to adjust the valve lash was a regular necessity on the sixties’ solid lifter engines, something I would guess a lot of owners neglected to do, with poor running engines (at best) being the result.
Still, even with solid lifters, sixties B-bodies of any year were the most livable Hemi cars. I think C&D even did a cross-country drive with a Hemi GTX. I can’t even imagine trying something like that today.
When people talk about cars that look good at every angle( ironically the closely related 68-.70 Charger being a prime example), this is an example of one that doesn’t. Certain angles it looks great, many others not so. Doesn’t help that they have a tail dragger stance with semi skirted wheels on a narrowish track for the body width, throw on some wider wheels and tires and air shocks and the look transforms for the better.
There was a time in my college years when I was absolutely sure that one of these Satellite hardtops was in my future. The one in my mind’s eye was navy blue just like this, with those off-white seats. I did not expect a hemi, but it certainly would not have been a deal breaker. 🙂
But even though the cars were cheap and relatively plentiful, the opportunity never came up. I came across one for sale at a car show once, but it was rusty as hell and I was not looking for that kind of project. If only I had been of driving age in 1972 when the mother of my sister’s best friend traded off her 66 Satellite convertible with bucket seats and that console.
I assume the primitive tires played a part in the lackluster 0-60 stats. Tire technology sure has come a long way.
You are correct, Eric!
Having driven some C2s with period correct tires makes me admire the guys who drove them back then. Just getting them to hook up at all was an art in itself and braking? Aaargh! Even relatively narrow, unsticky radials like the 205/70/15 Pirelli P4000 M+S I had on my big block car made a world of difference to traction and general drivability, especially in the rain!
Those and the 3.23 final drive. Sticky tires and 4.10s would knock off seconds
Interesting that the doors would not close easily. That’s not a good sign of solid body construction.
They are pretty solid built cars. The 66-67 cars are better built and fancier then the later B Body mopars. I can attest the door latches are tough. Not sure if it’s because of the weather strip? You need to give it a firm push. Closes tight and sounds like a tomb, nothing rattles. They are definitely not soft close doors. Lol
Chevron 32.9¢
Chevron Supreme 35.9¢
It cost $6.82 to fill up that 19 gallon tank with Supreme. About $63 in today’s money.
Gas might have been cheaper, but the cars used a lot more. This one managed 11 MPG. A modern Hellcat could probably double that.
32.9¢ back in 1966 is $3.32 today. Not much cheaper than $3.47 average for regular we’re paying in the US now. You’re right about the wonderfulness of today’s cars’ gas mileage. Hybrids especially.
excellent point!
In all my years as a garage man, I never once saw a 426 Hemi. I sure heard a lot about them but they were kind of a holy grail in Canada. I assume the USA got more of them, hence the familiarity with them.
Dad hated muscle cars of this era and would not take them in the shop. The owners had a habit of coming back a month after a tune up complaining about bad running. It was almost always caused by a failure to run the engine at high speeds, enough to keep the combustion chambers relatively clean. We used to load them up with Seafoam and run them hard, which helped.
In addition, muscle car guys were notorious for complaining about the bill, or simply not paying it.
I love the specification minutia:
“cubic feet per ton mile”
“breaker point arm tension”
Great stuff for us engineering nerds!
A neighbor in high school late 70’s had67 coronet r/t 440 4 speed engine had dual point distributor & 3.56 posi Dana 60. We got blown away by 426 Challenger r/t on a country road that was following from a distance behind us. We followed him in town & checked it out. All original except plug wires. I’ve seen a couple Hemi satellite & 67 Hemi GTX.
It’s really just a “homologation special”, isn’t it? “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday”, corporate ego, (male equipment) measuring contest, and all that, right? Obviously it worked, because the Big Three (and AMC, to a lesser extent) kept doing it.
The only thing that I find curious about all that is that I don’t believe that NASCAR was a nationwide phenomenon until much later. But I guess there were enough fans that all of the racing efforts were worth it for the manufacturers.
It wasn’t, but there was also drag racing, which had a lot of interest among audiences that weren’t necessarily into NASCAR. Chrysler developed distinct track and drag competition versions, and they also helped the Summers Bros. with a land-speed record car powered by four fuel-injected Hemi engines. Chrysler wanted to put the 426 Hemi in basically every form of American racing that would allow it.
Did anyone notice that the 426 hood emblem is in the shape of a coffin?!
That was some genius at Chrysler’s idea to mimic the Oldsmobile rocket. It was Plymouth’s version of the Dodge fratzog. Interestingly, it was used all the way up to the K-car. One of the first pictures of the K-car (with Iacocca, naturally) has a Plymouth hood ornament. It didn’t last long, maybe just that first year, then they were all switched to the pentastar.
Does anyone know if the Plymouth emblem was assigned a similar name like the fratzog?
That much power and simple leaf sprung rear end?
Kinda crazy, that rear set up must axle hop and kick like a mule on anything other than a straight line at the drag strip.
Being Australian only three Australian cars I can think of (and from same era) that would have huge issues getting the power down would be SBC equipped 327/350 original Holden Monaro, the 351 Ford Falcon GTHOs and Chrysler Valiant R/T Hemi Chargers.
Even my old VN Commodore with torquey big exhaust Buick V6 was a handful in the wet.
Wish I was alive and of driving age back in late 60’s. So much fun.
Chrysler offset the axle placement in the arc of the leaf springs so the leafs were shorter (stiffer) at the front than the back, giving an effect similar to aftermarket traction/slapper bars under acceleration. It’s pretty effective as B bodies and A bodies don’t seem to have as severe wheel hop as Mustangs and Camaros with their axles placed in the center of the arc. The trade off however is the opposite effect in deceleration, ie axle hop under hard braking, which is notorious in chryslers of this era, made worse by the lack of proper proportioning valve mentioned in the article
My ’65 273 V8 Barracuda had all kinds of downright scary wheel hop under heavy acceleration, i can only imagine the same in a live-axle B-body…
Likewise, Chrysler was known for adding an extra leaf spring on one side of cars with the hottest engines. These little tricks meant Mopars hooked-up a whole lot better off the line than Ford or GM products, and without any aftermarket, band-aid traction aids, either.
Thank you XR7Matt for explaining the engineering solution by Chrysler. A very good old school leaf spring set up would be better than a poorly tuned coil spring and trailing arm (like my old Commodore).
I’m really impressed by the fuel mileage range, 11-13 mpg. That shows some very good engineering. That’s what I got with my ’66 Riviera which had 425 Nailhead. Of course the Riv couldn’t run like a Hemi, but it was quick enough for me. When Detroit built these homologation engine specials they were always poorly suited to everyday driving duties. All those “tunnel port” specials needed high rpms to get the intake velocity high enough for maximum output. A racing engine is always operating at the top of it’s power curve, while a street engine is operating primarily at the bottom to middle of it’s curve. That’s why the 440 was a better street engine.
Now engines have variable valve timing which raises the powerband when it reaches a certain rpm zone.
I find the looks of this Plymouth to be very attractive, especially the green house.
To the ten-year-old me in ’66, the odd rear pillars just looked weird to me, so I did not investigate further and so missed the whole hemi aspect. Their looks have grown on me since; however, i agree with the commenter who suggested wider wheels and tires and lower shocks to fix up the rear view.
This particular car would not be one to drive to a Sierra Club meeting in.
Always loved these Satellites. When I graduated from Army OCS, I figured I could finally afford a nicer car. I got rid of my ‘63 New Yorker beater for $95 and bought a really cherry ‘66 Satellite for the princely sum of $1200. First car I owned with a 4 figure price tag. The Satellite was a white 2 Dr hardtop like the picture. Had a 318 poly rather than a hemi or big block. Pretty well equipped including factory air, but no tach. No real performance potential but with the air cleaner cover turned over, it sounded reasonably tough. I recall the car as seeming exceptionally tight for a hardtop. Likewise the suspension seemed way better dialed in than most of our MP patrol cars. I had to sell the car when I got rotated to Korea. One of those cars that left such good memories I wish I had kept it. For me the Satellite was a milestone car. It marked a life transition away from cheap beaters to cars a guy didn’t have to make apologies for. It was also the first time in my life I realized I was driving a better car than my parents. That was my only sad memory of the car.
I AM ALSO A OWNER OF A FACTORY * 426 HEMI BELVEDER 2 ALSO VERY HAPPY TO OWN ONE PART OF HISTORY’S GREAT FAST CARS
When I was 17 for my first car I had a ’67 Plymouth satellite convertible with the 383 automatic blue in color with white interior
Saying that Ford protested and got the Hemi banned for 65 is some wildly biased BS. They showed up with an answer to the Hemi, the 427 DOHC. Chrysler protested that engine and that eventually lead to both engines getting banned.