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Which Car Never Got the Engine It Deserved?
One thing I’ve learned in my time with the Hagerty Community is to never underestimate what they (i.e., YOU) can contribute to the content we create here at Hagerty Media. I enjoy wondering about the variety of our collective hopes and dreams for our classic, antique, and specialty vehicles. Be it an engine swap or a full restoration, we all have such dreams, don’t we?
So here’s the question I pose to everyone: what if the cars we love also had hopes and dreams? I reckon among the first things they’d dream about is having the best engine possible under their hoods. So tell me, Hagerty Community:
What car never got the engine it deserved, and what is that engine?
I’ll answer the second part first. As a Ford Lincoln-Mercury enthusiast, I’ve used this answer more often than I can remember: The Ford “427 SOHC” big block V-8. This rowdy, single overhead camshaft version of Ford’s venerable FE engine was based on the 427 side oiler, but with hemispherical heads and that unique SOHC valvetrain. The idea was to make a motor that would put Chrysler’s 426 HEMI on notice, but it never reached such fame. And that’s a shame.
I suspect any Ford equipped with a 427 SOHC also needed one of those “as-is” stickers, just like the 426 Mopar it intended to usurp. That’s a necessary distraction, because Ford could have sold enough of these to justify all that effort. (Or so I’d like to believe!)
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Every Ford Thunderbolt needed this mill. It should have been an option for the Mercury Cougar. Or perhaps a limited run of “Cammer Continental Convertibles,” because that’s right up my alley. But now it’s your turn to contribute, valued member of the Hagerty Community:
What car never got the engine it deserved, and what is that engine?
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The 02-05 Thunderbird never got the high performance V8 it deserved. The engine available near the time of its production that I would have liked to see it have was the 4.6 liter DOHC, 302hp V8 like the one from a mid 90’s Mercury Marauder. I believe that car with a motor like that would have been a good seller, and a fun collector car.
The 80’s Monte Carlo SS. A 305? PFFFT. Terrible.
Prowler number 1 on the list – any V8 would have been a game changer. #2 Pontiac Fiero- 3800 would have been huge improvement..bonus points for adding the supercharged version. #3 Cadillac Allante needed more oomph…
I think the SD455 should have been available in Pontiac’s full line of cars in 73/74. If the 74 GTO had come with the SD, maybe they’d actually get some respect lol.
Not an engine that a car should’ve come with, but a trans. And that trans is any other automatic than the 4L60 in the C6 Corvette. Think about it: Chevy spent millions of dollars designing this sports car and then puts the transmission out of their 1500 pick up in it.
The last version of the Ford Thunderbird should have received the 5.0 and 6spd from the GT Mustang.
The Plymouth Prowler. Had they packed more power in it, I believe it would have gone on to be much more popular. I recognize that a v8 was not an option given its dimensions, but a turbo 6 or turbo 4 might have been nice. If memory serves its v6 only made a little over 200hp, a real shame. Had it survived long enough to see the Pentastar it could have been a 300hp, 2 seat, rwd, roadster weighing less than 3000 lbs, a nice drive.
The first year Prowler made only 218 HP, sure, but every year after that it was 253. In an all-aluminum street rod, that was plenty. Anyone who cried about a V8 never drove one.
The 65-69 Corvair should have had the OHC engine from the Astro 1. A Corvair with 200 *net* horsepower would easily be a blast to drive, and would shut down a whole lot of so-called fast cars.