Why are these engines so ignored?

[big66440]

I've been thinking quite a bit about the first gen hemis and their status in the aftermarket for a while and just can't stand how it seems that everyone simply forgot about them,sure theres some company's out there that offer parts but google "Hemi" and 95% of the stuff out there is either 5.7 or 6.1 and some 426 stuff mixed in, I know the potential is there for these engines to be made as popular as the B/RB but it's the simple fact that the lingering sign of $$$$ and difficulty to come across parts that I personally think keeps the popularity down.

[speedicusmaximus]

Simple: The Gen III Hemi is being produced in numbers that the Gen I manufacturers couldn't even dream of, let alone make. As with all things no longer produced, the numbers around will dwindle - how many get destroyed each year racing, bad machining, left to seize and/or just scrapped ?

Besides, the number of people interested in the early Hemi is really, in actuallity, very small. But the number of people driving around in the Gen III Hemi's, even just the unmodified versions, is more than Gen I and Gen II total production.

If you were a after market parts manufacturer, what would you make parts for ?

Mike

[NE57]

>Besides, the number of people interested in the early Hemi is really, in actuallity, very small.<

makes us kind of an elite club.

or the lunatic fringe.

My own take on the question is that somebody could build more power for less money and less hassle with other more contemporary motors. They just don't look as good. I'm up to 8 grand and I don't have a darned thing bolted together yet. I think style and image and legend have a lot to do with why we like 'em. Its also vintage. While most consumers today want only new techy watches with digital telemetry interpolating escapements(because that's what his golf buddy has, never mind that he has no clue what a digital telemetry interpolating escapement IS), there are a number of collectors who go gaga over certain old timepieces that have history and an aura about them, even if they seem crude by comparison. I might smile when I see the first hemi on Antiques Roadshow.

[DblAdigger]

Especially if it's a NOS, all matching numbers/dates, 300C