There’s always something cool about finding old racing parts for sale on eBay. This time it is a 426 Hemi NASCAR Bathtub Intake that was used on the Chrysler engines in the middle 1960s competing in the series. After the Hemi was banned and then allowed back into competition, engineers developed this intake for the revised A117 model Hemi that was allowed back into competition. Made out of magnesium, this awesome piece is also equipped with the 850 CFM carb that it was (apparently) matched with out of the gate. The seller does not have any information listed on where this intake traveled during its days of racing or whose hands that it passed through.
Being that this stuff was very limited in production and used by some of the greatest names in the sport, there’s a chance that someone cool had their mitts on this hunk of orange painted magnesium decades ago. There are actually a few drag racers running these intakes on NHRA class racing cars and Mopar fans are always stopped in their tracks when they see something other than a cross ram or other dual carb intake atop a Hemi.
The reason for the sunken “bathtub” design was apparently for hood clearance. Being that the A117 spec Hemi was limited to short track races only, this was a reasonably specialized piece but it was made during the era when the Detroit companies were all so hooked on racing that they would spend blindly and wildly to out maneuver and out run the competition.
The intake and carb look like they are in amazing shape and we hope that they go to someone who will actually mount them to an engine and use them to make the kinds of power Tom Hoover and his ilk intended back in the day. Yes, it would be a cool piece to see on a shop shelf but immeasurably cooler to have it on an engine that is running and hell, maybe even racing.
Hemi history can be your for $3,400.
Check out these photos of the 426 Hemi NASCAR bathtub intake and carb –
I’m not exactly a NASCAR historian by any means but that’s a vacuum secondary on that carb with the “LeMans” front feed bowl attached. I don’t think they ever used a vacuum secondary in competition. I could be wrong though. Neat piece of history, the manifold that is.
They did not use choke plates either. And it would have had a secondary metering plate also.
I’m definitely, definitely not an expert either but the throttle linkage looks like it would hit the intake when it moved. Wouldn’t the linkage have a higher arm or such, so it wouldn’t bind? – just asking…..
The A117 Hemi was 404 cubic inches instead of 426. This was due to a shorter stroke. That is definitely the right intake for a A117 but as noted, I strongly doubt that is the correct carb for it. It looks like it was pieced together.