When the opportunity to take cheap dyno runs presents itself, you take it, and that’s exactly what landed in our lap as we were in Somerset, Kentucky covering the first of this year’s Somernites cruises. Every Saturday morning of each cruise weekend the Somernites crew puts together an activity for participants to do before downtown is set up for the car show. We’ve shot off a Civil War cannon, we’ve drag raced at London Dragway, and for this weekend the event was a quick drive up the street to Chicken Hawk Motorsports, where for $60 we would get two dyno pulls while enjoying the company of gearheads. We knew we were going as soon as we heard “dyno”, but Saturday morning’s weather threatened to drown out everyone before the day even began. Whatever the case, I was going no matter what, and a small handful of cars joined up to give the dyno a shot as well. By the time we got up there, the two biggest hitters (a 450+RWHP Grand National and a 440-ish RWHP New Edge Cobra) had made their runs, and I was second, after a sweet 1964 GTO made his pulls.

When time came to put the old man on the automotive lie detector, we felt confident. The factory rating for the Hemi is 345 horsepower and 390 ft/lbs of torque. Adjusting for driveline losses, we initially predicted 300 wheel horsepower and about 350-ish ft/lbs of torque. As the 300C was strapped down to the DynoJet Tom was going over some final instructions with me: we’d lock the transmission into 4th gear and make the pulls until either the rev limiter or speed limiter kicked in. The first run was started when the car was in 4th and the engine was spinning at 2,000 RPM. As soon as foot went to floor the NAG-1 went from fourth to third and went for broke. For the second run, we started with the car back in 4th, but this time with 80 MPH wheel speed showing. This should be enough to keep the transmission from kicking down, right? Nope. Apparently Grandpa will stand up and come alive every time full throttle is hit, so we counted run #2 and we got off of the dyno.

The official numbers are 293 horsepower and 340 ft/lbs of torque, and there is a chance that there might still be something left on the table due to the electronics not wanting to cooperate. The car has power, and for being nearly 99,000 miles old, the 5.7 is still pulling like a freight train. A tuner, like one from Diablosport, will take care of most of these issues, and you can bet that once it’s in our hot little hands that Grandpa will get right back on the rollers for round two!