The test that they did was a little different than most. Rather than try a shoot-out between the 440 and the Hemi as they would have been stock 50 years ago. They spec'd them in as close to identical to each other as they could to see what each one's strong and weak points were. I don't remember seeing a test done quite that way before.

And they basically showed what many of us have always known; the 440 typically runs out of steam by 6,000 or so but had the torque down low while the Hemi likes to pull hard up top. The one thing that surprised them was the huge level of torque that the 440 developed.

Personally, I have always felt that the 440 was the better choice for many (maybe most) casual hot roders back then. It's was torquey, would run the same most every time, and all most guys had to do was mash the throttle and look for traction. The Hemi however needed a lot more attention to it's tune to keep it running at it's best. And the driver needed to 'drive' the Hemi the right way to get the most out of it. Then there is the gearing issue along with the impact of the track length. The Hemi wasn't at it's best in the 1/8, a place where the 440 and other big inch engines shined. And a lot of Hemis left the factory with compromise gearing that hurt their performance because they usually had to do double duty both as basic transportation as well as racing.

Imagine a Hemi with a 727 and 3.23 gears running in the 1/8th with a casual driver. Not hard to see that a 440-6 in the right hands could send the Hemi home early.