I am still watching the last few hours of Day 5, but seems there were a bunch in the Day 1 episode....

So there was a 64 or 65 Plymouth went 8.81 with a 636 Hemi

There is the purple 70 Cuda with a big Hemi running 9.30's

The Blasfamous Chevy with a blown Hemi

The Rancharo with a blown Hemi and a stick shift.....

And one Goodwin, semi Hemi that is probably the most awesome of all the evolutions of a Hemi.

After years of owning and racing many Hemi's, I am starting to see why the Hemi is great at making power, but disastrous when just one thing isn't right. Particularly the valve train.

I am in the final stages of my rebuild of my Hemi and am contemplating doing somthing different. Not sure which way yet.....If I had the $$$, Goodwin would get a call though.

What would you guys build and why?

To me its always been a weight issue.. make it
light and you will run quick.. add more power
and you go quicker 3500-4000# cars just dont
make it... JMO
EDIT
when I had my hemi years ago it was always a PITA
to keep it running right and your right.. the valve
train was a pain.. I went through some rockers

The Goodwin Hemi in Doc's car is an NA beast.Docs car is all steel and full interior with a killer sound system.Not sure what it weighs.Goodwin builds alot of motors for pulling trucks,tractors and off shore boat racing.Doc lowered Edweirdos previous PS NA record average by 6 tenths.It was Docs high school car and he still drives it while doing his Hospital rounds.Larson has done chassis work on it,Jeff's suspension knowledge its a total package.They learned alot when they raced at the altitude tracks on Rocky Mountain Race week.The addition of a GearVendors has helped alot on the drives between tracks.DJDuster I know was changing to Hemi power with a set of twins.Not sure of the status of his car.There was also a 70 RR with a Hemi in it running 10s and finished the week.That guy is building a Superbird clone with Hemi power for next year,

Finnigan's car was just Roadkill, the engine was getting slammed together on a picnic table. The heads were suspect before hand and it. dropped. a. valve. Hemis started out in NASCAR running 500 miles on superspeedways, so they can go the distance, but half assed builds aren't going to cut it.

Finnigans Hemi dropped a valve because they over revved it in the burn out box on day 1...I could hear it on the video. Not fixing that at the track. Been there, done that....

I would like to build somthing for my Cuda that would be Drag Week capable. I don't think its a Hemi anymore. Would a 572 Wedge make the same? I doubt the heads would flow anywhere near what my Hemi ones do? So it kinda leaves me in a lurch wondering...

I never saw the 64 plymouth, I watched some of the live feed day 1 and then watched in person on Day 2.

I know Randy in the Purple 70 finished but he was running without first gear on friday but still finished 2nd in class.

Finnegan was on the live stream day 3 talking about the Hemi failure. I guess he had new heads to put on it sitting at home but didn't get time.

A bunch of Hemi's finished, several were Gen 3's.....

I really don't see any inherent problem w/ hemis being durable. If you have the right parts for the combo, they'll run a long time.

Been racing Hemis for 50 years, never had any reliability problems.

The key is engine speed. A Hemi will run forever at 7500 rpm. Longer than forever at 7000 rpm.

But the vogue today is to cut the pins and cranks down to Honda size, run them to 9500, and then wonder why they have issues.

Think about it.

I'm certainly not a member of the Eddie Miller fan club...... But it took over 10 years for someone to beat that average....... And it sure sounds like there were countess dollars spent to do it.

Wish I had everyone else's good luck with G2 Hemis....

So open to idea's for the future.

running 8's naturally aspirated while also being able to drive 1,500+ miles in a week?

Dragula,

I know Scott 58 has never been one to toot his own horn, but his "Drag Week Hemi" build from 2013 finally made it's debut at DW17. For those who may have forgotten, it's a 588 Millennium headed combo he outlined in this thread: Drag Week Hemi

In typical Drag Week fashion, shakedown or test and tune didn't happen before the event, so Scott and Kim were learning on the fly with both the car and the engine. With a best ET of 10.26, and a best MPH of 138.3, I feel the Abbotts, The big Hemi, and the B-body, had a great initial outing!

I can't speak for Steve1118, but mine has been running mid 9s at 3800+ lbs all motor for 10 years and never had a reliability issue. I keep the revs below 7500 rpm. It has a ton of street miles on it, not so much in the past few years after having kids though, lol. It should be able to do the mileage for drag week easily, I just have no desire to do it.

Any chance someone can re-host the pictures posted in that thread (Stupid Photobucket)?

I'm shooting for DW18 in my Hemi, but may have to push to DW19.