The words Chrysler and rare are often found together but the reality is that a 1969-era Plymouth-Gurney Indy car engine is among the most limited edition Mopar engines ever. Outside of a freaking ball-stud Hemi test engine showing up on RacingJunk.com we’re not sure how much more rare you can get. We’re guessing lots of you just said, “Plymouth-Gurney what?” We can’t blame you because before we were tipped off to this engine that is listed for a cool $45,000 on RacingJunk we had no idea it existed either. The good news is that it is even cooler than you can imagine.
Based off of a production 318 LA series small block and topped with special cylinder heads based off of a 340’s design, the engine you see on this page is one of a handful ever built. Because it was naturally aspirated, the little screamer stood zero chance on long courses but was actually a competitive animal on short courses. That’s a claim backed up with facts because in 1969 Art Pollard won the Indy car race at Dover, Delaware with a car powered by one of these engines. That race was the only Indy car race a Plymouth powered vehicle ever won and ever will win because the brand has been dead for some years. The project was a fast track piece of work as development started in February and the first mill was delivered to Andy Granatelli’s shop in April for fitment into race cars.
Believe it or not, the money for this project came from the fact that Richard Petty left Chrysler for Ford to compete during the 1969 season. When their deal was up in January, the budget that would have gone to Petty went into this project. The good news was that their work and dedication was validated by Pollard’s win. The bad news was that the engines would never be used in an Indy car race again after the 1969 season. The era of stock block Indy car engines was not quite over in 1970 but it was heading in that direction. Smokey Yunick would be the last man to qualify a stock block engine with his small block Chevy entry in the middle 1970s….or so we thought! Turns out Roger Rager was the last guy to do it in the early 1980s. (Thanks for the correction, Ski)
The one thing that is striking us as weird on this particular engine is the word Dodge on the valve cover. The engines all had the late 1960s Plymouth lettering down the covers when they were new so perhaps someone was just messing around and stenciled that on there? The valve covers themselves with their ribs and round pads on both ends are the same as we have seen in all the old photos so we’re guessing it is just something that “happened” over the years.
This thing is completely bad ass and just another piece of racing history that speaks to how heavily Detroit invested in motorsports during the 1960s and into the 1970s. From the “Mystery Motor” to the “Cammer” to this extremely low volume, hard running, Plymouth Indy motor, this is the kind of history we absolutely love. We’re guessing you do too.
Scroll down to see photos and the RacingJunk Link for the full ad with more photos –
RacingJunk Find: 1960s Plymouth-Gurney Indy Engine
“Smokey Yunick would be the last man to qualify a stock block engine with his small block Chevy entry in the middle 1970s.”
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1996/Roger-Rager-Took-School-Bus-Engine-From-Junkyard-To-Indy-500-Lead/id-4049a22fb669c925c5fcfa99b27fb9f3
Be cool as the other side of the pillow to drop that into my old Dart.
Not 45K cool tho.:-(
Once again another fine example of what Chrysler once was and could of been …. and a sad reminder of what they’ve become .
Chrysler Ford GM .. all had their moments of glory … with each and every one trading them in for a bit of greed ..creating the constantly Behind the Eight Ball mess they’ve now become
Oh well …. at least we’ve got the memories
Those are some seriously raised intake ports…
I don’t think those are 340 based heads because the center exhaust ports aren’t together and look how they are shaped from the front view.
Yeah, doesn’t seem to resemble any production Mopar head I’ve ever seen – or anything else, either. The intake ports almost remind me of a Gen III Hemi.
RE: the exhaust ports, look no father then the early hemi’s they sure seem to resemble the ports on my 392ci hemi, (factory 2×4 carb motor)
I saw one of these motors in a hydroplane called Blind Cripple and Crazy in Grand IslandNY. It was just about unbeatable
Now go find us some pics of a Pontiac Ram Air V tunnel port engine.
Hoa about the Buick V-6, re-badged as a Menard-Buick in 1996. Also, seed one for sale at: http://www.race-cars.com/engsales/other/1348602323/1348602323ss.htm
How about the Buick V-6, re-badged as a Menard-Buick in 1996. Also, see one for sale at: http://www.race-cars.com/engsales/other/1348602323/1348602323ss.htm
Did not proof read the first inept try. Sorry
Harry Weslake’s biography, Lucky All My Life, is supposedly great, down to $200 now, used, on Amazon. Still waiting….
That engine you have there is what is known as the STP Plymouth Indy Engine that was built at Keith Black Racing Engines. Gurney had nothing to do with it… My dad had everything to do with it and 10 were built. My dad was working with Pete Hutchison with Chrysler who was the factory rep out in South Gate with my dad at KB’s while they were developing that engine for the Stock block program that Art Pollard was slated to drive. The car didn’t qualify because Andy put some cold STP into the dry sump tank during a STP shoot and the glop blocked off the oil flow and burned the engine up …. They swapped out a second engine and it failed again and they pulled the car from competition… My dad flew back to INDY to see what the hell was going. He cut open the oil cooler and it was loaded with engine debris from the first engine. Anyway, it turned out to be a bad scene although one of the engines I believe won the Michigan 200 in a Gaerhart STP Indy car….
Bob, Thanks for your comments. CAC.
Didn’t one of these engines make it’s way into the Rod Shop Stickel and Noltemeyer Dodge Colt station wagon that competed in NHRA C/A Class back in the early 70’s ?
That’s what i was thinking, Rod Shop Colt might have had Dodge lettered on it.
If you want to know practically everything about this one off engine, get yourself an issue of Motor Trend, July 1969 on EBay and check out page 76. There is a picture of my dad and Pete Hutchenson with the engine without the Westlakes heads…. They had the patterns made while they were dyno testing small block LA heads from the factory… There is a breakdown of the Westlake heads on pages 78 and 79…. Oh, and a correction, one of these engines won at Dover, Delaware, not Michigan I said in the last post…..
I have press photos of this engine and access to the photos on the Keith Black Racing Engines Dyno pulls which were roughly 600 HP on straight ALKY….. Bob
PS, there is a STP car in Speedway Motors Museum online….
Hi Bob.
I believe the engines were also used in the Champ Sprint Cars if I remember right. The gear drive and dry sump were all driven off the front that dad design and built. According to Tom D’Eath there was this type engine in the ZZ-ZIP when he located it in a barn in New York… Read the interesting post by Clutch above.
Yes you are correct we have the same article from Motor Trend 1969. CAC has the engine posted in Race Junk. Thanks for your comments.
I’m happy to see that this historic engine is getting some attention. I have one of the three cars that was run by Vince Granitelli. The drivers were Art Pollard, Marion Andretti, and Greg Weld. The car I have is completely restored to it’s original 1968 condition and painted the famous STP dayglow orange. If there is any interest in this car, let me know. I can always be reached on my cell phone – (909) 633-2937. I’m always interested in technical information on the engine. I called Kieth Black’s operation and they said they have no records of the developmental program – very sad. The engine I have had a fresh dyno tag from Keith Black’s shop. I’ve since had the engine checked out and it is in fact fresh with dyno time only. Thanks guys for the interest.
Thanks Ron for taken my call. It’s very nice to see so much interest on our engine we have posted for sale.
Hi Ron. Very cool. We would love to know more. I do have my dad’s KBRE engine build work sheet on the assembly of the engine in the Sykes family archives.