small block was leading Daytona 500......in 1971

just read a little article at Bangshift.com that was interesting to say the least. Always cool when someone goes way outside the box. Anybody know anything else about this? Sure would have been interesting as to what they used for the build.

http://bangshift.com/bangshiftapex/the-defiant-ones-part-2-mario-rossi-at-daytona/

pretty cool!

and @ 10000 rpms he said, thats a valvetrain ahead in its time, prolly T/A heads all hyped up to the max

Video Highlights of the race : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vyx1pCXKzo (go to 2:30 sec.)

Here is another article: aerowarriors.com

Intake is a dual plane - LD340 perhaps.

In that link, is one of those mechanics Allan Kulwickis (sp?) dad?

Interesting article

Joey Arrington was telling me a while back that they were using the small block to qualify with, and the Hemi in the same car to race with at times.

I know a guy that used to work for Mario Rossi back in the day. Not sure if was 1971, but I'll ask him if he remembers anything about it.

Another guy I know used to do the Petty's stuff, said they couldn't keep the pushrods in the 59* small blocks if they went over 8500 for too long. I do know of a drag race 59* small block going 8900, but only 10 seconds at a time.

that was pretty much what was going through my mind.... what did they have available to them to make that project happen?