1963 425hp 409 Built By The Late Dale Armstrong For Sale On eBay – Claimed To Be One Of Last Engines The Great Man Built


1963 425hp 409 Built By The Late Dale Armstrong For Sale On eBay – Claimed To Be One Of Last Engines The Great Man Built

The passing of Dale Armstrong was one of the sadder moments of 2014 for drag racing fans. The mechanical genius had so many ideas and so much skill in sorting them out that his influence still looms large in the world of top fuel racing today. One thing that we told you when we remembered Dale was that when he got out of drag racing he did not get out of cars. In fact, his hot rodding life after drag racing was in many ways as impressive as the career he had put together at the track. The hot rod builds, restorations, and other projects he embarked on were top shelf in ever sense of the word. His genuine love of cars makes his drag racing life seem even that much more cool to us. Right now there is an engine for sale on eBay, a 425hp 409ci Chevrolet engine that the seller claims was built by Armstrong and represents some of the last work he did before becoming too sick to wrench.

If true, this is a great piece and one that needs to find a home in a beautiful Chevrolet of some sort, be it a resto or a swap candidate. This engine was a real romper-stomper back in 1963 and with dual quads, a solid lifter cam, forged bottom end, and high flowing manifolds, it was designed to go like hell on the street and provide racers on the high banks of oval tracks or the short chutes of drag strips enough power to handle the competition. This engine backed with some steepish gears and a four speed would be unholy in local driving or “short sprint” style contests. Or stick some tall gears behind it and use all the torque that it makes to your advantage and use the additional wheel speed for mile long burnouts on your Redline bias-ply tires. We’re in for either option and Dale would have been in for both of those ideas as well.

We don’t know the guy selling this thing and we hope that this is not some clever ploy to get more attention to the auction. If it is and the guy snookered us, he’s got to live with that. We’re going on the premise that this is legit and that it is very cool and a way to have Dale’s handiwork thumping under your own hood.

 

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE AUCTION FOR THIS 425HP 409 BUILT BY DALE ARMSTRONG

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