He sure was. He was a man ahead of his time. Big Daddy Don Garlits became lifelong friends with Smokey. Smokey was older than Don. Don said Smokey was the most brilliant man he ever met.
I could be mistaken as at seventy years old that's a daily occurrence but I seem to remember Smokey putting together a Pinto motor which is not a real challenge for anyone but his motor was remarkable in the fact that most of the internals we're of a ceramic or derivative there of which is still not remarkable. What was though is the fact he would drive it as a normal car but it had no cooling system. No radiator,coolant or anything! He kept the water pump just to keep belts and accessory drives simple.I believe this was early 70's or whatever year you could get a Pinto with the little 2.3L which I think he used.
I got to tour "The Shed" one afternoon in Warroad, Minnesota. It's across the street from the Marvin Window factory I was in town to see. Bob Marvin was a very gracious host. He epitomizes the "regular guy" ethic. He just loves these cars and brings them out as often as he can.
My uncle that raised me was friends with Yunick, and one of his friends, "Mr. Bill". I have been in Smokey's shops a million times, and saw almost everything, even though it was all through a kid's eyes. But I do remember seeing at least one of these engines just sitting on the floor in the mid 70s, with a good pile of dust all over it. I remember saying to my Papa, "Why does this Cleveland have the distributor in the back, Papa?", because my family has always raced and driven Fords, I grew up knowing which engines were what in the Ford lineup. Papa looked at it, muttering something about Smokey only "wears bowties, son". Then he took another look, and asked Smokey's friend Mr. Bill about it. He said that was "an old 302 we were working on for Chevy, for the Trans Am stuff.". Now in my early 60s, I still marvel at how many people and things from my memories come back around.
Smokey never stopped. He was hashing out stuff till the day he passed. The hemi designation on this will have to be reserved till I can see the chamber. Looks like best it could be is a polysphere motor. Like an early Chrysler A motor,the 277-318 mills.
I've got a calendar on my garage wall that's been stuck open to April 2009 with this beautiful and unique car. Note the initials "LME 71" on the passenger side firewall.
The factory 302 with the 2 4 barrels was way under rated by Chevy. They said 290hp but it was pushing close to 400hp. When car and driver tested one back then their test driver said it had the top end pull of a 426 hemi. And lower the gears and a set of slicks, they'll pull a 1/4 mile in the 10's. So if Smokey figured out the perfect combo of carb cfm, compression, and cam I could see 650hp.
Back in the early 90’s, Reggie Jackson brought the silver one into our service station to have it put on our engine analyzer. I always wondered what happened to that car.
Killer cars there’s no other than the best damn garage in town with Smokey yunick he was the man GM let him experiment on alot of different things he said he had to paint the windows in it to keep prying eyes from seeing and later on chain link fence with barb wire around the top to keep them out he helped them with the 327 and the 400 small block he also had the racers in the early 70s long track used a 400 small block with a 327 crank and still produce 350 cid and use the 307 with a 400 small block crank this way it’s the old Buick 350 bore and stroke until nascar found out then they made a rule for the 4” bore and 3.50 stroke so they couldn’t have an advantage of the GM blocks and cranks being produced
The fence around Smokey's entire compound was financed & erected when Smokey was doing research & development for FORD. Ford also paid for 24/7 security at Smokey's shop. Trust me, because I have all 3 volumes of his autobiography, from his NASCAR days as well as his days in Indy racing. I've read them cover to cover. Smokey said Ford was paying him a 6 figure salary at the time, plus an unlimited expense account ( a credit card ) so he could purchase anything & everything he needed. Ford paid Smokey far more money & gave him more factory support than Chevy & Pontiac combined. I'm not one of those "loyal Ford snobs".......I'm actually more of a Chevy man.......but I do like & appreciate all of the great classic engines from all of the American auto makers.
They didn't flow any bigger #'s so they stuck with the production wedge head ,its cool but didn't make any more power ,they should have copied the BOSS 302 head
Yunick ran a Camaro Z28 in the Trans Am series but I do not think the hemi heads would be legal or pass inspection. His Camaro did get away with many questionable mods but the heads could not be disguised. The Trans Am racer had an engine set back, no window molding or rain gutters and the hood and back deck lowered. Probably more, but the hemi heads???
Any way you see it, these are definitely COOL! Want to take a trip to Roseau this summer and planned to go to Warroad to see the collection. A little teaser, thank you.
Wow I knew another about smokey but didn't know about this 302 Camaro! I'm in shock 😲 how did I not hear about these 3 maro's in all my years it's sad!
Back in ‘74 I bought and drive a 1968 Z/28 and a friend of mine is the current owner. British green with white stripes and black interior. My current Z is a 1970 4 speed which I purchased in 1981 from the original owner.
Great video, but there is a lot of misinformation here. form everything i have seen and read (including Smokey's books) the 302 "hemi" was never put in to production. they were developmental engine dyno mules. they are also not true "Hemi's" like the Chrysler 426. they are Semi-Hemi canted valve heads just like Big Block Chevy heads, only for a small block. none were ever installed in factory cars or even factory back race cars and none of them raced in SCCA Trans Am. the original Z28 car may have raced Trans Am, but not with those heads. All the engines and parts at Smokey's were sold some time between the late 80's and the auctions before and after his death. all the engines were used for dyno testing only with guy like Smokey. so the cars you see today, may be real Z/28s, but they are "What If" cars that someone has installed these heads on and not factory cars. I have seen dyno sheet from one of these engines and it made around 475HP, not 650. the factory 302 hemi piston was large and heavy and Smokey modified them extensively to lighten them up. my understanding is that GM cast 25 sets of these heads, intakes, along with pistons and cams to match the new valve layout. with 18 of them being shared outside GM partners like Smokey. some of them were used for destructive testing and the return to GM. One other thing to note, just because the car belonged to some one famous like Reggie Jackson or Richard Childress or was sold at a big name auction house like Barret Jackson, doesn't make it the real deal. Barrett-Jackson has been involved in a few fake car scandals over the years. the 2 that come to mind are #1 the fake green 1969 RS Z28 in 2008 and #2 the prior Reggie-Jackson owned ZL1 #27 in 2009. and recently in 2019 Jerry Seinfeld's Fake Porsche 356A he sold at a Gooding and Company Auction to another collector. in Jerries' case, he was sold the car by European Collectibles and was provided a certificate of authentication. He unaware that it was a fake. Also he did the right thing and reimbursed the buyer and is now suing the dealer he purchased the car from since the dealer provided him a fake certificate of authenticity. (ironically all these cars i have mentioned were painted green. so maybe don't buy green cars at auction?) Back in 2009. Barret Jackson auctioned ZL1 #27. turns out the only part of the car that was a true ZL1, was the trim Tag. Reggie Jackson was shill bidding to help the current owner (who bought it from Reggie) of the car unload it. Barrett Jackson let him retract his final bid. which is unheard of. but they let him do it because he is Reggie Jackson. leaving teh next lowest bidder stuck with it. it was quite the scandal for a while once the new owner discovered it was a fake. from what i have researched, ZL1 # 27 ended up being parted out. someone got the trim tag that eventually ended up on Reggie's ZL1. someone else has the original engine in another car, and yet 3rd person had parts of the original body from #27, and finally someone got a most of the original front end sheet metal to make a drag car out of. so in reality there are 4 cars that claim to be #27 ZL1 Camaros. However in my book the only real one is the one with the original hidden vin number on the firewall. While these cars may be real Z28, and may even have the original engine blocks, they are not real since these heads were never used on any production or factory backed race teams. they are just someone's really cool "what if cars" with some exaggerated HP numbers and some prior famous or semi famous owners. However it is still really cool to see what could have been.
Correct, TA only used factory release cylinder heads. No hemis. I am sure that Smokey wanted GM to build the cars, Smokey wanted LOTS of things from GM and got very few. Read Smokeys books for that. As for ZL1s I know of two. Owned from new by Bob Jane in Victoria Australia. One was manual and road raced succesfully. Then fitted with a 350 after the big block was banned. The other auto car drag raced. A decade plus ago the road race car was 'restored' after a LOT of abuse in motorsport over 40 years. A big job and it used the engine from the auto car that had been lost to a crash I believe. The car is lovely and defenitly original. Though very few panels are original.
The narrator in this video never once said "these hemi heads were put into production".....as a matter of fact, he implied the opposite, vie describing how GM experienced failure with the intake manifolds for these experimental heads. As for what ya said about "these heads only made 475 HP".........Smokey Yunick AND Roger Penske's team were making 475 HP with the camel hump heads........that is a fact. But I do agree with you that I don't believe these hemi heads ever competed in T/A and/or SCCA sanctioned races.....at least, not in the 60's. Maybe the blue car really did race at a much later date, and certainly not with Smokey Yunick. ( he said the blue Z28 was raced in the 70's.......Smokey & Penske both were racing the Z28's in SCCA racing from 67 thru '69, I believe. Then Penske went over to race AMC's.....I believe from 1970 onward, for a time. )
@@howabouthetruth2157 smokey didn't bullshit if he said it made 600hp it made 600hp! His shop is where the beginnings of the double pumper holley and the superflow dyno came from. A legend of legends...I just Imagine smokey yunick, Zora arkus duntov,and Bill Mitchell in heaven talking about the car they could've built in an alternate reality
I'd love to see one of the heads up close sure looks like a Big Block head on a SBC,dual 780 carbs probably 323 gear to run 160 to 180 mph,very interesting Yunic race car,now I know where CAl Trac bars started 😉
I googled image searched and found some pics. Similar to a BB but it looks like the valves might have more cant to them on the 302. It might just be the picture though.
Don’t know the specifics, but they’re most likely 12.5:1 with either GM #140 or #754 solid lifter cams. Both are over 260 degrees at .050” lift. Both cams will take a 302 up past 8000rpm, happily. I don’t think they make 650hp to the wheels, but I can easily believe 525hp at the crank.
@@calebkey2050 WRONG ! The Smokey Yunick Chevy 302 engines were 475 hp at the flywheel. Those engines were semi-hemi because the canted valves heads. No such thing as a SBC "hemi" engine.
@@sergeantmasson3669 Never claimed it was a true hemi, just stated what is most likely living inside the engine. Looks to be a baby big block, which is awesome all on its own… And yes, I know the cam isn’t the end all on RPM, but every 302 having a forged bottom end sure made it easy.. 302’s would wind to 7000 stone stock after all ;)
650 Rear Wheel Horsepower..... WOW. I have never heard of the hemi 302 SBC. 650RWHP is awesome even in todays standards, and those Z/28's are street driven..... I would love to see what was changed, looks very similar to Big Block Chev......I want one, I want one now to put in my 1968 HK Holden Monaro....
The TA competition rules in the day required over the counter parts. Smokey wanted more valve lift. The way to get that was big block rocker arms with the 1.76:1 ratio. The length from the ball stud center to the valve stem center was longer. This required filling the rocker stud holes and drill and tap toward the intake side the required amount. Then the rocker arm hit the rocker cover. Smokey and his team being the innovative guys they were just put the valve cover over a piece of pipe and massaged it with a ball pien hammer to get the clearance required.
Just under 600hp, and will probably do it All DAY LONG! Heck I always wanted to build a 302, or maybe a small cid BBC, like 302, 327 or 350ci approximately, a big block street engine capable of spinning 8500,
650 Horsepower at the rear wheels from a 302” is very impressive! Whether or not, the dyno is set on the generous side giving out horsepower numbers based on best case possible, one thing is for certain, the ‘68 sounds great and being how a 283 is a quick to peg ones tach it’s no surprise the 302” screams as well being that it uses the same stroke in a 327 block but, now factor in a hemi design top end that was massaged by Mr Smokey Yunick there is no doubt in my mind I bet it’s a blast to drive!!
WRONG ! Semi-hemi because of the canted valves cylinder heads. GM never built a SBC hemi engine. In order to put big vales in the SBC heads, they had to "canter" the valves. Thus, semi-hemi.
Klaus Von Schmit, that 650 hp is BS. Smokey Yunick Chevy 302 was 482 hp, at the flywheel, and were semi-hemi engines because of the canted valves. GM never produced a SBC "hemi" engine. The people that did this video are full of crap.
@@sergeantmasson3669 I agree about the horsepower. I have a 302 in my Camaro, and though they will rev high, they are short on torque and horsepower. I'll be doing an engine swap this spring. As for those heads, they are just the same design as what was on the big block Chevys. Pretty close to what became the SB2 head in later years.
These days it is really hard to even see a 1968 Z/28 next to impossible a 1967 Z/28, however 1969 Z/28 higher productions and still can find one now and then on the roads still in good shape. Today while driving down the highway a really nicely re done 1970 Z/28 was on the highway was really sounding true and looked great however it could be just a tribute car. You never know unless you check the numbers matching.. I know cause I still have an original 1967 RS/SS Camaro first car to get the 350 and the only car to get a 350 in 1967 so I mostly garage the old car but then I get to bug to take it out for a good spin here and there. That's way I keep it registered and insurance on the Camaro just in case. Bottom line is I am trying to keep it very low mileage to preserve it's originality.
Those 1968 Hemi 302cid Camaros Smokey built for the TransAm racing series have more innovation than DARPA and Sandia Lab combined... First n/a engine to make over 2 hp per cubic inch!
650 HP at the rear wheels? I'd like to see that happen. For a 302 CI engine naturally aspirated and that HP that has to be a "happy" Dyno. Crankshaft HP is even questionable. 2 HP/ci NA is a stellar engine even with today's technology.
These cars were restored. Unfortunately when someone restores them they don't research everything properly then you end up with a partial original. I have restored a bunch of these cars and I can tell the stripe layout is not factory also
Quite sure Smokey said they tried really hard to get these heads to work properly but couldn’t. I think I still have the Super Chevy magazine with a yellow 69 Z with these heads. I’ll have to dig it out. Cool cars though
Everyone makes a big deal out of these cars. I had one...Bought it with 3000 miles from a cop that was getting a divorce and paid $2800. That said it came with a set of 4.88 gears and mickey thompson suler scavenger headers...It was quick. That said I would have nevr bought this car but my father wouldnt let me buy anything with a big block motor. He wa my co signer on the loan. I wanted a 375 horse 396. One of my best friends had a 69 Z also with 3.73 gears and 2 others had chevells. one a 70 and another a 69. both 396's. The stock Z couldnt get going without gears that 3.73 gearing was a dog. That car was pretty useless till 4000 rpms then it would com to life.. Had I have the chance to do it over I would still rather have the big block with solid lifters and that big cam...
That stance is impressive by modern standards. Not buying that engine in the silver car makes anything close 650 wheel hp though, in fact I really doubt it makes 400 whp. That is LT6 power with OHV and less displacement with fairly tame cam by the sound of it. That take 5.5L 4 valves and a bigger bore plus reeving to 8500 and beyond. The race hemi of the day, the one used on race day did not break 600 gross hp. The Ford cammer only made ~660hp gross.
So...Smokey design new heads for the 302 block? Sorta like Zora Arkus Duntov designing "ArDun" heads for the Ford flathead? and Zora was the father of the Corvette? You know that Smokey didn't produce the heads himself but was working with Chevrolet/GM engineers. That means that somewhere in the deep dark caverns of Chevrolet engineering are the "blueprints" for theses heads!!!! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zora_Arkus-Duntov
Even muffled way down those are def more cammy than the production 302 who knows what smokey had in there . Like them this way not some stupid flomaster kiddy muffler. 650 is complete BS esp at the tire thats some jack n the beanstalk stuff right there! Id believe little under /over 5....600 takes a LOT of doing for most sbc let alone a little 302. Read about these engines as a young kid good to see they still exist. These engines .....short drives, shifting super early isnt doing those cyl walls any favors. Its not gonna break with an occasional 5k blast.
Unbelievable beautiful cars Love the silver one Can’t believe Reggie sold it Do you know what it sold for?Chevrolet messed up not selling it as a COPO engine
More along the lines of the BBC semi-hemi with canted valves. You can see the similarity to BBC valve covers on the motor. Smokey's answer to the more Dominant Ford Boss 302 "Cleveland" heads which likewise featured canted valves.
@@neighborscomplaint6859 That's more like it. I'm a Smokey fan and have detailed small and big block builds from back in the day. He was truly innovative.
2 Horsepower per CID?, needs to be investigated. Hemi chambers might be better but not that better. I talked to a pro racer that drove a Pontiac toolroom hemi that I can't find any info on.
If smokey worked on it the HP numbers were true he and zora would talk for days at a time throughing ideas at the walls like the hemi SBC but they were to expensive and had problems with different parts to make them vieable for production and the hemi was a gas hog and it produced tomuch emotions so back to the drawing board to work on the Oldsmobile hemi and the Buick hemi and a Pontiac hemi smokey is still the professor and David Visard is still praising his works Visard is a professor of physicis none better at making hp
Not Hemi heads. I'm surprised that a video this well made has so many inaccuracies in it but I believe that the most important point to make is that this is no Hemi 302 and that should be pretty damn obvious
Since they never showed us the heads off the engine, how are you so sure those chambers aren't hemispherical? And the placement of the plug doesn't matter.
I love the car. But I find it amazing these people don't even know what a hemi is. Or what it means. This engine is not a hemi. It's a smal Block with big block style heads. If this is a hemi, all Chevy big blocks are also according to this logic.
It's a Semi-Hemi,or more akin to a Twisted -Wedge.A True HEMI Has Plugs in the Center.See Chrysler's Ball-Stud HEMI, this looks like a Smaller Version.🤷
Hemi refers to the shape of the chamber, half a sphere or hemispherical. Where the plug is isn't as important, or the valves in relation to each other for that matter.
@@sparkplug1018 Incorrect,Plug location does matter,due to Shrouding,Flame-Travel,& Wash from Exhaust Etc.. And the Center of the Cylinder is where all the Charge wants to go Naturally( I mean Pistons don't go Sideways).It also allows you to put Larger valves in a Smaller Space because they are closer to Bore Center. We MOPAR GUYS know this, I mean a 426 HEMI has 2.25 intakes,& a 440 Wedge only had 2.08 This engine appears more akin to a Polysphere or SemiHemi,outside a bit like the SB2 of a few years ago, that Resembles a miniature Rat Motor🤔. My father ran Chevys,tried Stock Eliminator with 70-1/2 Z28, owned a Yenko Chevelle, a 68 Z28 with the 302 with the CrossRam 2x4s & many others, he knew of these cars an heads,but Mortal Men could not buy them sadly.🙄
You do realize "Hemi" is under a Chrysler trademark? There is no such thing as a 302 "Hemi! It may or may not have a hemispherical combustion chamber but its not a Hemi! Honestly it looks more like a copy of the polyspherical headed 318 to me then a hemi.
For any doubters 600 ponies at the crank from Smokey would b an easy reality from one of these cant valved Masterpieces I've seen 327 iron headed engines produce in the realm of 450 at the crank at around 7k rpm with mediocre parts These lil beasts he fettled would easily rev to more And the parts would have been highly detailed Not to mention what he would have done with windage in the bottom end The small journal engines spun a lot free er than the bigger journal engines And don't be fooled by a conservative cam lope To put it bluntly he knew what he was doing To say 450 at the crank or wheels Is at least uneducated towards Mr unick
A shame that you can't wind 'em up and go through the gears. 650 horses at the rear wheels? I'd have to see the dyno sheet on that. with the standard 20% loss due to friction, that implies over 800 at the crank.
If it’s truly a HEMI, then show us a picture of the combustion chamber. It will be shaped like 1/2 a tennis ball. I suspect the head is a small block copy of the famous “Porcupine head” on the big block Chevy. Then you’ve got to ask what it weighs. If it’s anywhere near the weight of an aluminum headed 427/L89, which in race trim would be a 650hp at least. I think it’s an attempt by GM to develop a small block copy of the Porcupine head for the little 302 for a legal 302 Trans Am race motor. The DZ 302 was already pumping out 350hp in the street Z28, maybe 400-425 for the race motor. Obviously this one didn’t cut the mustard. 650 at the wheels? Prove it.
End result, despite all the engineering, these engines were failures that couldn't accomplish what GM had hoped for. They are NOT hemi engines either. They were semi-hemi because of the large canted valves. GM never made a SBC hemi engine and neither did Smokey Yunick.
@@bilbobaggins4710 Canted valves does NOT make an engine a hemi. Hemi cylinder heads, the valves are exactly opposite from each other. Not so in the Smokey Yunick cylinder heads. They're canted and NOT exactly opposite from each other. What you believe and what's fact are very different
Does good chevy guy have a problem with any of this story ? My thinking is none of this is true. The LT1 vega is a complete fake. Just does not ring true. Chevy was down on power so lets install non production heads, Um. Could be !
Smokey was probably one of the smartest mechanics to ever turn a wrench.
He sure was. He was a man ahead of his time. Big Daddy Don Garlits became lifelong friends with Smokey. Smokey was older than Don. Don said Smokey was the most brilliant man he ever met.
I could be mistaken as at seventy years old that's a daily occurrence but I seem to remember Smokey putting together a Pinto motor which is not a real challenge for anyone but his motor was remarkable in the fact that most of the internals we're of a ceramic or derivative there of which is still not remarkable. What was though is the fact he would drive it as a normal car but it had no cooling system. No radiator,coolant or anything! He kept the water pump just to keep belts and accessory drives simple.I believe this was early 70's or whatever year you could get a Pinto with the little 2.3L which I think he used.
I thought I knew a lot about the small block, but had never heard of this one. Cool!
I got to tour "The Shed" one afternoon in Warroad, Minnesota. It's across the street from the Marvin Window factory I was in town to see. Bob Marvin was a very gracious host. He epitomizes the "regular guy" ethic. He just loves these cars and brings them out as often as he can.
My uncle that raised me was friends with Yunick, and one of his friends, "Mr. Bill". I have been in Smokey's shops a million times, and saw almost everything, even though it was all through a kid's eyes. But I do remember seeing at least one of these engines just sitting on the floor in the mid 70s, with a good pile of dust all over it. I remember saying to my Papa, "Why does this Cleveland have the distributor in the back, Papa?", because my family has always raced and driven Fords, I grew up knowing which engines were what in the Ford lineup. Papa looked at it, muttering something about Smokey only "wears bowties, son". Then he took another look, and asked Smokey's friend Mr. Bill about it. He said that was "an old 302 we were working on for Chevy, for the Trans Am stuff.". Now in my early 60s, I still marvel at how many people and things from my memories come back around.
I'm glad that they are driven on a regular basis!
Beautiful cars and great to see they get driven a bit.
Wow what a beautiful piece of engineering
Smokey never stopped. He was hashing out stuff till the day he passed. The hemi designation on this will have to be reserved till I can see the chamber. Looks like best it could be is a polysphere motor. Like an early Chrysler A motor,the 277-318 mills.
I own a 58 Plymouth,I'm like you Looks More Like A Poly.👍👍
From pictures I have seen it looks like it may well be a true hemi chamber, could always be wrong, since pictures are obviously scarce.
I read about this when I was a kid. For years people tried to tell me it never happened.
Glad you found this. Now I can prove ever body WRONG!!!!
Thumbs up, Thanks for sharing, Legendary History
An outstanding Z/28 built by a fantastic MAN Smoky was the best never duplicated.
I've got a calendar on my garage wall that's been stuck open to April 2009 with this beautiful and unique car. Note the initials "LME 71" on the passenger side firewall.
I love "Different" stuff, especially when it's Chevy stuff! And 1st gen Camaro to boot!
Man! 650 hp from a 302 is nothing short of amazing! You would think it would be way more cammy.
650hp using pea shooter exhaust lol!
i highly doubt it
The factory 302 with the 2 4 barrels was way under rated by Chevy. They said 290hp but it was pushing close to 400hp. When car and driver tested one back then their test driver said it had the top end pull of a 426 hemi. And lower the gears and a set of slicks, they'll pull a 1/4 mile in the 10's. So if Smokey figured out the perfect combo of carb cfm, compression, and cam I could see 650hp.
Back in the early 90’s, Reggie Jackson brought the silver one into our service station to have it put on our engine analyzer. I always wondered what happened to that car.
Killer cars there’s no other than the best damn garage in town with Smokey yunick he was the man GM let him experiment on alot of different things he said he had to paint the windows in it to keep prying eyes from seeing and later on chain link fence with barb wire around the top to keep them out he helped them with the 327 and the 400 small block he also had the racers in the early 70s long track used a 400 small block with a 327 crank and still produce 350 cid and use the 307 with a 400 small block crank this way it’s the old Buick 350 bore and stroke until nascar found out then they made a rule for the 4” bore and 3.50 stroke so they couldn’t have an advantage of the GM blocks and cranks being produced
A 400 bore and a 3.48 stroke is a 377 that was used in the cheetah ,its not a 350 cubic inch engine ,bore it .030 over and its a 383
@@darrellsomers5427 a 327 crank is a 3.25" stroke, though. that's what he used, and i believe it yields 347ci on a standard 400's 4.125" bore
The fence around Smokey's entire compound was financed & erected when Smokey was doing research & development for FORD. Ford also paid for 24/7 security at Smokey's shop. Trust me, because I have all 3 volumes of his autobiography, from his NASCAR days as well as his days in Indy racing. I've read them cover to cover. Smokey said Ford was paying him a 6 figure salary at the time, plus an unlimited expense account ( a credit card ) so he could purchase anything & everything he needed. Ford paid Smokey far more money & gave him more factory support than Chevy & Pontiac combined. I'm not one of those "loyal Ford snobs".......I'm actually more of a Chevy man.......but I do like & appreciate all of the great classic engines from all of the American auto makers.
Good god. That's alot of pride there. Thanks Yunick for getting them to pull their head out. Holy shit.
They didn't flow any bigger #'s so they stuck with the production wedge head ,its cool but didn't make any more power ,they should have copied the BOSS 302 head
Yunick ran a Camaro Z28 in the Trans Am series but I do not think the hemi heads would be legal or pass inspection. His Camaro did get away with many questionable mods but the heads could not be disguised. The Trans Am racer had an engine set back, no window molding or rain gutters and the hood and back deck lowered. Probably more, but the hemi heads???
Any way you see it, these are definitely COOL! Want to take a trip to Roseau this summer and planned to go to Warroad to see the collection. A little teaser, thank you.
Wow I knew another about smokey but didn't know about this 302 Camaro!
I'm in shock 😲 how did I not hear about these 3 maro's in all my years it's sad!
I read something about these Chevrolet Hemi heads years ago. If Smokey put his hands on it I am sure it is stout.
Back in ‘74 I bought and drive a 1968 Z/28 and a friend of mine is the current owner. British green with white stripes and black interior. My current Z is a 1970 4 speed which I purchased in 1981 from the original owner.
Hey John, do you still have that piss yellow coupe?
Great video, but there is a lot of misinformation here. form everything i have seen and read (including Smokey's books) the 302 "hemi" was never put in to production. they were developmental engine dyno mules. they are also not true "Hemi's" like the Chrysler 426. they are Semi-Hemi canted valve heads just like Big Block Chevy heads, only for a small block. none were ever installed in factory cars or even factory back race cars and none of them raced in SCCA Trans Am. the original Z28 car may have raced Trans Am, but not with those heads. All the engines and parts at Smokey's were sold some time between the late 80's and the auctions before and after his death. all the engines were used for dyno testing only with guy like Smokey. so the cars you see today, may be real Z/28s, but they are "What If" cars that someone has installed these heads on and not factory cars. I have seen dyno sheet from one of these engines and it made around 475HP, not 650. the factory 302 hemi piston was large and heavy and Smokey modified them extensively to lighten them up. my understanding is that GM cast 25 sets of these heads, intakes, along with pistons and cams to match the new valve layout. with 18 of them being shared outside GM partners like Smokey. some of them were used for destructive testing and the return to GM. One other thing to note, just because the car belonged to some one famous like Reggie Jackson or Richard Childress or was sold at a big name auction house like Barret Jackson, doesn't make it the real deal.
Barrett-Jackson has been involved in a few fake car scandals over the years. the 2 that come to mind are #1 the fake green 1969 RS Z28 in 2008 and #2 the prior Reggie-Jackson owned ZL1 #27 in 2009. and recently in 2019 Jerry Seinfeld's Fake Porsche 356A he sold at a Gooding and Company Auction to another collector. in Jerries' case, he was sold the car by European Collectibles and was provided a certificate of authentication. He unaware that it was a fake. Also he did the right thing and reimbursed the buyer and is now suing the dealer he purchased the car from since the dealer provided him a fake certificate of authenticity. (ironically all these cars i have mentioned were painted green. so maybe don't buy green cars at auction?)
Back in 2009. Barret Jackson auctioned ZL1 #27. turns out the only part of the car that was a true ZL1, was the trim Tag. Reggie Jackson was shill bidding to help the current owner (who bought it from Reggie) of the car unload it. Barrett Jackson let him retract his final bid. which is unheard of. but they let him do it because he is Reggie Jackson. leaving teh next lowest bidder stuck with it. it was quite the scandal for a while once the new owner discovered it was a fake. from what i have researched, ZL1 # 27 ended up being parted out. someone got the trim tag that eventually ended up on Reggie's ZL1. someone else has the original engine in another car, and yet 3rd person had parts of the original body from #27, and finally someone got a most of the original front end sheet metal to make a drag car out of. so in reality there are 4 cars that claim to be #27 ZL1 Camaros. However in my book the only real one is the one with the original hidden vin number on the firewall. While these cars may be real Z28, and may even have the original engine blocks, they are not real since these heads were never used on any production or factory backed race teams. they are just someone's really cool "what if cars" with some exaggerated HP numbers and some prior famous or semi famous owners. However it is still really cool to see what could have been.
A lot of what your saying i have heard before, def never raced in a T/A race
Good info. Barrett Jackson is essentially a used car dealer. They sell used cars. If you can’t trust a used car dealer, who can you trust!
Correct, TA only used factory release cylinder heads. No hemis.
I am sure that Smokey wanted GM to build the cars, Smokey wanted LOTS of things from GM and got very few. Read Smokeys books for that.
As for ZL1s I know of two. Owned from new by Bob Jane in Victoria Australia. One was manual and road raced succesfully. Then fitted with a 350 after the big block was banned. The other auto car drag raced. A decade plus ago the road race car was 'restored' after a LOT of abuse in motorsport over 40 years. A big job and it used the engine from the auto car that had been lost to a crash I believe.
The car is lovely and defenitly original. Though very few panels are original.
The narrator in this video never once said "these hemi heads were put into production".....as a matter of fact, he implied the opposite, vie describing how GM experienced failure with the intake manifolds for these experimental heads. As for what ya said about "these heads only made 475 HP".........Smokey Yunick AND Roger Penske's team were making 475 HP with the camel hump heads........that is a fact. But I do agree with you that I don't believe these hemi heads ever competed in T/A and/or SCCA sanctioned races.....at least, not in the 60's. Maybe the blue car really did race at a much later date, and certainly not with Smokey Yunick. ( he said the blue Z28 was raced in the 70's.......Smokey & Penske both were racing the Z28's in SCCA racing from 67 thru '69, I believe. Then Penske went over to race AMC's.....I believe from 1970 onward, for a time. )
@@howabouthetruth2157 smokey didn't bullshit if he said it made 600hp it made 600hp! His shop is where the beginnings of the double pumper holley and the superflow dyno came from. A legend of legends...I just Imagine smokey yunick, Zora arkus duntov,and Bill Mitchell in heaven talking about the car they could've built in an alternate reality
it finished 7th place in a SCCA amateur race in Atlanta ? Do you have a link to those results?
I'd love to see one of the heads up close sure looks like a Big Block head on a SBC,dual 780 carbs probably 323 gear to run 160 to 180 mph,very interesting Yunic race car,now I know where CAl Trac bars started 😉
I googled image searched and found some pics. Similar to a BB but it looks like the valves might have more cant to them on the 302. It might just be the picture though.
What engine is in the silver 69?
Anybody got the full cam specks on them ? WOW ! great sounding camshafts ! idle at 1,800+ !!!! Love it !
All Camaro Z/28 302 engines had solid lifters. Thus, the noise.
Don’t know the specifics, but they’re most likely 12.5:1 with either GM #140 or #754 solid lifter cams. Both are over 260 degrees at .050” lift. Both cams will take a 302 up past 8000rpm, happily. I don’t think they make 650hp to the wheels, but I can easily believe 525hp at the crank.
@@calebkey2050 WRONG ! The Smokey Yunick Chevy 302 engines were 475 hp at the flywheel. Those engines were semi-hemi because the canted valves heads. No such thing as a SBC "hemi" engine.
@@calebkey2050 BTW, a camshaft doesn't determine how high an engine can rev. There are many other factors involved.
@@sergeantmasson3669 Never claimed it was a true hemi, just stated what is most likely living inside the engine. Looks to be a baby big block, which is awesome all on its own… And yes, I know the cam isn’t the end all on RPM, but every 302 having a forged bottom end sure made it easy.. 302’s would wind to 7000 stone stock after all ;)
are these cars for sale
650 Rear Wheel Horsepower..... WOW. I have never heard of the hemi 302 SBC. 650RWHP is awesome even in todays standards, and those Z/28's are street driven..... I would love to see what was changed, looks very similar to Big Block Chev......I want one, I want one now to put in my 1968 HK Holden Monaro....
That's at the crank
Raw power. The only way
Camaro Lovers Dream.....
The TA competition rules in the day required over the counter parts. Smokey wanted more valve lift. The way to get that was big block rocker arms with the 1.76:1 ratio. The length from the ball stud center to the valve stem center was longer. This required filling the rocker stud holes and drill and tap toward the intake side the required amount. Then the rocker arm hit the rocker cover. Smokey and his team being the innovative guys they were just put the valve cover over a piece of pipe and massaged it with a ball pien hammer to get the clearance required.
wow, hitting metal with a hammer. you wouldn't read about it.
I would like to know where this is at.. I would love to go see it one day.
Just under 600hp, and will probably do it All DAY LONG! Heck I always wanted to build a 302, or maybe a small cid BBC, like 302, 327 or 350ci approximately, a big block street engine capable of spinning 8500,
650 Horsepower at the rear wheels from a 302” is very impressive!
Whether or not, the dyno is set on the generous side giving out horsepower numbers based on best case possible, one thing is for certain, the ‘68 sounds great and being how a 283 is a quick to peg ones tach it’s no surprise the 302” screams as well being that it uses the same stroke in a 327 block but, now factor in a hemi design top end that was massaged by Mr Smokey Yunick there is no doubt in my mind I bet it’s a blast to drive!!
WRONG ! Semi-hemi because of the canted valves cylinder heads. GM never built a SBC hemi engine. In order to put big vales in the SBC heads, they had to "canter" the valves. Thus, semi-hemi.
Klaus Von Schmit, that 650 hp is BS. Smokey Yunick Chevy 302 was 482 hp, at the flywheel, and were semi-hemi engines because of the canted valves. GM never produced a SBC "hemi" engine. The people that did this video are full of crap.
@@sergeantmasson3669 I agree about the horsepower. I have a 302 in my Camaro, and though they will rev high, they are short on torque and horsepower. I'll be doing an engine swap this spring. As for those heads, they are just the same design as what was on the big block Chevys. Pretty close to what became the SB2 head in later years.
How is that a semi head? The plugs are located in the normal spot all small blocks were at that time.
These days it is really hard to even see a 1968 Z/28 next to impossible a 1967 Z/28, however 1969 Z/28 higher productions and still can find one now and then on the roads still in good shape. Today while driving down the highway a really nicely re done 1970 Z/28 was on the highway was really sounding true and looked great however it could be just a tribute car. You never know unless you check the numbers matching.. I know cause I still have an original 1967 RS/SS Camaro first car to get the 350 and the only car to get a 350 in 1967 so I mostly garage the old car but then I get to bug to take it out for a good spin here and there. That's way I keep it registered and insurance on the Camaro just in case. Bottom line is I am trying to keep it very low mileage to preserve it's originality.
I bet a spark plug change was a treat
Those 1968 Hemi 302cid Camaros Smokey built for the TransAm racing series have more innovation than DARPA and Sandia Lab combined... First n/a engine to make over 2 hp per cubic inch!
Ron Johnson is a great man
These are a big deal hey! Very important cars indeed!
👍🇦🇺
Amazing........
650 HP at the rear wheels? I'd like to see that happen. For a 302 CI engine naturally aspirated and that HP that has to be a "happy" Dyno. Crankshaft HP is even questionable. 2 HP/ci NA is a stellar engine even with today's technology.
Cam Specks wanted ! lol .
Agreed
450 hp max.
Agreed. Amazing car and engine. No need to gussy it up with fake dyno claims.
@@codyhaviland9650 If they were to sell them, new owner could sue their butts off.
It seems like the exhaust would have to be bigger for that kind of HP. Looks like 2" max.
HP is way over stated. But hey, it's chevy.
These cars were restored. Unfortunately when someone restores them they don't research everything properly then you end up with a partial original. I have restored a bunch of these cars and I can tell the stripe layout is not factory also
@@rtkl13 The rear stripes are wrong, the stripes on the cowls come down too far, and the left side Camaro emblem is crooked on the '68.
@@kennydemartini2169 Trained eye, yes sir !
@@rtkl13 I've painted several Camaro's, and own a '68 Z/28
Come see the 1969 in person at the Twin Cities Auto Show! May 15-23 at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds
I saw it
Quite sure Smokey said they tried really hard to get these heads to work properly but couldn’t. I think I still have the Super Chevy magazine with a yellow 69 Z with these heads. I’ll have to dig it out.
Cool cars though
The 68 appears to have 67 center caps.
Everyone makes a big deal out of these cars. I had one...Bought it with 3000 miles from a cop that was getting a divorce and paid $2800. That said it came with a set of 4.88 gears and mickey thompson suler scavenger headers...It was quick. That said I would have nevr bought this car but my father wouldnt let me buy anything with a big block motor. He wa my co signer on the loan. I wanted a 375 horse 396. One of my best friends had a 69 Z also with 3.73 gears and 2 others had chevells. one a 70 and another a 69. both 396's. The stock Z couldnt get going without gears that 3.73 gearing was a dog. That car was pretty useless till 4000 rpms then it would com to life.. Had I have the chance to do it over I would still rather have the big block with solid lifters and that big cam...
WRONG ! It was a semi-hemi engine because of the canted valves.
" YOU-NICK"
Hmm, I think I read back in the day Smokey had a garage sale and sold the engines and someone put them in the camaro's after the fact.
That stance is impressive by modern standards.
Not buying that engine in the silver car makes anything close 650 wheel hp though, in fact I really doubt it makes 400 whp. That is LT6 power with OHV and less displacement with fairly tame cam by the sound of it. That take 5.5L 4 valves and a bigger bore plus reeving to 8500 and beyond.
The race hemi of the day, the one used on race day did not break 600 gross hp. The Ford cammer only made ~660hp gross.
This never would have raced in the TransAm as the heads would not have met the minimum production required.
So...Smokey design new heads for the 302 block? Sorta like Zora Arkus Duntov designing "ArDun" heads for the Ford flathead? and Zora was the father of the Corvette? You know that Smokey didn't produce the heads himself but was working with Chevrolet/GM engineers. That means that somewhere in the deep dark caverns of Chevrolet engineering are the "blueprints" for theses heads!!!! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zora_Arkus-Duntov
😊
a race car with out a roll bar ?
Cleveland heads on a chevy?
Even muffled way down those are def more cammy than the production 302 who knows what smokey had in there .
Like them this way not some stupid flomaster kiddy muffler.
650 is complete BS esp at the tire thats some jack n the beanstalk stuff right there!
Id believe little under /over 5....600 takes a LOT of doing for most sbc let alone a little 302.
Read about these engines as a young kid good to see they still exist.
These engines .....short drives, shifting super early isnt doing those cyl walls any favors.
Its not gonna break with an occasional 5k blast.
I have been to Rick Hendrick's private collection and THAT is where the third engine not with Richard Childress.
Anyone else see the z16 in the background?
Hmm last I heard there was a hundred made and atleast the engines still around
awesome cae but the heads do not look HEMI SPARK PLUG IN REGULAR LOCATION
I read those heads didn't flow any better then the factory wedge heads so they didn't put them into production
600 650 that is the dream ?
The mark Donahue car that ruled the SCCA trans am series didn't have these heads lol ,they didn't flow any better then the stock heads
Unbelievable beautiful cars Love the silver one Can’t believe Reggie sold it Do you know what it sold for?Chevrolet messed up not selling it as a COPO engine
wow ,how much would those cars cost to buy ??? just asking
Never ever heard his name pronounced that way.
Always heard "Younik".
Hemi is a registered Trademark of Chrysler Corporation
As far as I know, HEMI is trademarked, Hemi may or may not be.
In either case, they honestly don't care when it comes to stuff like this.
Coolest Z28 ever !!! boy it's to bad they didn't make more .
The 1968 was a better looking car, with the larger and flared wheel openings. IMO...
BS, you're not going to get 650hp at the rear wheels with a 302
Looking at the valve covers, that wasn't a hemi. The spark plugs went into the side of the head.
More along the lines of the BBC semi-hemi with canted valves. You can see the similarity to BBC valve covers on the motor. Smokey's answer to the more Dominant Ford Boss 302 "Cleveland" heads which likewise featured canted valves.
@@neighborscomplaint6859 That's more like it. I'm a Smokey fan and have detailed small and big block builds from back in the day. He was truly innovative.
Looks like a small block with big block head's
Z code the DODGE
2 Horsepower per CID?, needs to be investigated. Hemi chambers might be better but not that better. I talked to a pro racer that drove a Pontiac toolroom hemi that I can't find any info on.
If smokey worked on it the HP numbers were true he and zora would talk for days at a time throughing ideas at the walls like the hemi SBC but they were to expensive and had problems with different parts to make them vieable for production and the hemi was a gas hog and it produced tomuch emotions so back to the drawing board to work on the Oldsmobile hemi and the Buick hemi and a Pontiac hemi smokey is still the professor and David Visard is still praising his works Visard is a professor of physicis none better at making hp
Not Hemi heads. I'm surprised that a video this well made has so many inaccuracies in it but I believe that the most important point to make is that this is no Hemi 302 and that should be pretty damn obvious
So you're a better engineer and smarter than Smokey ???? LMFAOROTF STFU.
Since they never showed us the heads off the engine, how are you so sure those chambers aren't hemispherical?
And the placement of the plug doesn't matter.
Take it easy with a smokey engine? Smokey just spun in his grave!
I love the car. But I find it amazing these people don't even know what a hemi is. Or what it means. This engine is not a hemi. It's a smal Block with big block style heads. If this is a hemi, all Chevy big blocks are also according to this logic.
Explain the unique part. The Hemi heads. !!!! ??
These cars can stand on their own merit, without the inflated horsepower claims.
Please educate yourself on the pronunciation of the man’s name.
No the carbon on the one when you started it up it always was smoking even as it was on the street. Running rich. Of Significant Importance cars.
It's a Semi-Hemi,or more akin to a Twisted -Wedge.A True HEMI Has Plugs in the Center.See Chrysler's Ball-Stud HEMI, this looks like a Smaller Version.🤷
Hemi refers to the shape of the chamber, half a sphere or hemispherical. Where the plug is isn't as important, or the valves in relation to each other for that matter.
@@sparkplug1018 Incorrect,Plug location does matter,due to Shrouding,Flame-Travel,& Wash from Exhaust Etc.. And the Center of the Cylinder is where all the Charge wants to go Naturally( I mean Pistons don't go Sideways).It also allows you to put Larger valves in a Smaller Space because they are closer to Bore Center. We MOPAR GUYS know this, I mean a 426 HEMI has 2.25 intakes,& a 440 Wedge only had 2.08 This engine appears more akin to a Polysphere or SemiHemi,outside a bit like the SB2 of a few years ago, that Resembles a miniature Rat Motor🤔. My father ran Chevys,tried Stock Eliminator with 70-1/2 Z28, owned a Yenko Chevelle, a 68 Z28 with the 302 with the CrossRam 2x4s & many others, he knew of these cars an heads,but Mortal Men could not buy them sadly.🙄
You do realize "Hemi" is under a Chrysler trademark? There is no such thing as a 302 "Hemi!
It may or may not have a hemispherical combustion chamber but its not a Hemi!
Honestly it looks more like a copy of the polyspherical headed 318 to me then a hemi.
302.....650Hp at the wheels??? no chance....with drivetrain loss.....that is a 750-800 HP engine. more like 450 at best.
According to GM, T/A race car version was 450 hp with dual quads.
Had an extra 100hp over the Trans Am competition and the best finish it could manage was a 7th place. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
They are not HEMI ! 302 with crossfire intakes!! No sparkplug going thru the valve cover..
For any doubters 600 ponies at the crank from Smokey would b an easy reality from one of these cant valved
Masterpieces
I've seen 327 iron headed engines produce in the realm of 450 at the crank at around 7k rpm with mediocre parts
These lil beasts he fettled would easily rev to more
And the parts would have been highly detailed
Not to mention what he would have done with windage in the bottom end
The small journal engines spun a lot free er than the bigger journal engines
And don't be fooled by a conservative cam lope
To put it bluntly he knew what he was doing
To say 450 at the crank or wheels
Is at least uneducated towards Mr unick
Looks an awful lot like a pre runner to the LS motors
Smokey was a fantastic mechanic and thinker but I'm not gullible enough to buy that "600 HP" stuff.
Underrated 600hp?? I think not.
Man can't do with a crossram, hemi heads and big ports what requires 7psi boost.
Took how long to get symmetrical ports on a Chevrolegs? 🤣
A shame that you can't wind 'em up and go through the gears. 650 horses at the rear wheels? I'd have to see the dyno sheet on that. with the standard 20% loss due to friction, that implies over 800 at the crank.
Doo Doo
I'm drunk F everybody bruh
If it’s truly a HEMI, then show us a picture of the combustion chamber. It will be shaped like 1/2 a tennis ball.
I suspect the head is a small block copy of the famous “Porcupine head” on the big block Chevy.
Then you’ve got to ask what it weighs. If it’s anywhere near the weight of an aluminum headed 427/L89, which in race trim would be a 650hp at least.
I think it’s an attempt by GM to develop a small block copy of the Porcupine head for the little 302 for a legal 302 Trans Am race motor.
The DZ 302 was already pumping out 350hp in the street Z28, maybe 400-425 for the race motor.
Obviously this one didn’t cut the mustard. 650 at the wheels? Prove it.
End result, despite all the engineering, these engines were failures that couldn't accomplish what GM had hoped for. They are NOT hemi engines either. They were semi-hemi because of the large canted valves. GM never made a SBC hemi engine and neither did Smokey Yunick.
Yes... He did
@@bilbobaggins4710 Canted valves does NOT make an engine a hemi. Hemi cylinder heads, the valves are exactly opposite from each other. Not so in the Smokey Yunick cylinder heads. They're canted and NOT exactly opposite from each other. What you believe and what's fact are very different
Looks more like a big block head. Plug is too low to be a hemi.
Does good chevy guy have a problem with any of this story ? My thinking is none of this is true. The LT1 vega is a complete fake. Just does not ring true. Chevy was down on power so lets install non production heads, Um. Could be !