Chrysler V6 Hemi prints uncovered
Tom Rock has uncovered blueprints of Chrysler’s original 3.6 liter V6… and its never-approved V6 Hemi.
While Chrysler Australia did make a series of Hemi Six engines, including one with a “six-pack” setup (triple two-barrel Weber carburetors) which helped set enduring speed records and easily outpaced V8-engined cars in Australia, the company did not sell its own V-6 engines until the 3.9 liter V6 was launched in 1987, followed by the completely different 3.3 liter V6 in 1990. However, in the early 1950s, Chrysler not only planned a V6 engine, it planned one using the new hemispherical-head design that would be used on a series of legendary V8 engines.
As with the Hemi V8, the V6 engine would have been on the forefront of automotive technology; it may have stemmed the loss of sales at Plymouth in the mid-1950s, when competitors had made V8 engines available but Plymouth had to stick with its antiquated flat-head six.
The engine shown on our Hemi V6 page was production-intent, but a highly placed executive vetoed the plans, and it never came to be.
Get the full story and see the blueprints
