No one can fault Chrysler for harping on about the Hemi’s superiority over other engines for years. The automaker was (and still is) proud of this engine enough to trademark the "Hemi" name. If we were to make a list of the top engines of all time, no serious gearhead would take us seriously if the Chrysler 426 Hemi doesn’t top the list.

The 426 Hemi is undoubtedly one of the most legendary mills of the muscle car era, earning the respect of gearheads from across the divide – both Ford and Chevrolet enthusiasts alike. The Mopar-engineered big-block 426 Hemi V8 ruled the streets and racetracks, helping in no small way to elevate the 1960s and ‘70s as the glorious muscle car era.

Sure, you didn’t see or hear them on a regular basis, but when they did hit the street, it was the stuff of intimidation. Introduced in the 1950s, Chrysler has offered the Hemi since the 1960s, and the mill is currently in its third form. Mopar celebrated its 50th birthday in 2014, reminding us how far the powerful mill that launched Richard Petty’s career has come.

Related: 10 Largest Engines American Manufacturers Ever Put in Their Cars

FirePower And Elephant: The First To Third Generation Chrysler Hemi Engines

426_Hemi
Via Guide Auto

This engine was born as "FirePower" from 1951 through 1958. The 426 Hemi would replace the FirePower from 1964 through 1971. The larger-than-life American stock car racing driver, Richard "The King" Lee Petty, has the Hemi to thank in large part for the success of his racing career. In fact, The King ruled the 1964 season of the Daytona 500 so dominantly that NASCAR had to change the rules. You can still visit Petty's famous Plymouth Superbird displayed at The Richard Petty Museum in Randleman, North Carolina.

The 1964 Daytona 500 had the first three cars with the 426 Hemi in them. Petty’s shaming of other competitors while driving the invincible Hemi-powered Superbird forced NASCAR to introduce a new rule that banned competitors from using an engine without a street version, ultimately eliminating Petty's race-only 426 Hemi from the 1965 season. By then, Petty led 184 of the 200 laps to capture his first Daytona 500 en route to nine victories, earning over $114,000 and his first Grand National championship. The Blue Oval feared Chrysler’s Hemi and countered with the Ford 427 SOHC engine.

There was a ray of light to NASCAR’s revision of the rules for the 1965 season. It forced Chrysler to develop and bless Mopar fans with a street version of the formidable Hemi, which they introduced with the 1966 Dodge and Plymouth B-Body muscle cars.

Although the street-version Hemi had a lower compression ratio at 10.25:1 and featured a gentler timing chain and different intake and exhaust manifolds, it was still a force to reckon with, winning Chrysler trunk-loads of races and championships. Chrysler named this street version "Elephant."

Brief Overview Of The Mopar 426 Hemi V8

1955 Chrysler 300 426 HEMI V8
Via HotCars

In a nutshell, the Hemi engine refers to a series of gas-powered V8 engines built by Chrysler and featuring overhead valve hemispherical combustion chambers. The first in the series got named FirePower and got produced between 1951 and 1958, while the second, nicknamed "Elephant," got produced between 1964 and 1967, and the third began in 2003.

Now trademarked by Chrysler, no other automaker may use the "Hemi" name, but manufacturers have, over the years, built engines incorporating a similar design. Sidelined from the Indy in 1965, Chrysler debuted the lighter drag racing version called "A-990" in the Dodge and Plymouth cars for that year’s NHRA Super Stock class, effectively launching the popularity of Funny Cars.

The following year, the street-legal Hemi was ready, and the FirePower got discontinued, except for rare appearances in limited-edition Dodge Darts and Plymouth Barracudas in 1968. Drag racers were free to modify their street Hemi, nicknamed "Elephant" due to its size.

Decades later, Dodge rolled out a Mopar-customized Dodge Charger "Redline" rocking a modern 7.0-liter Hemi V8 engine with 590 horsepower. This was at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Roughly six years later and we got the "Hellephant," a newer 1,000-hp Mopar supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat Hemi crate engine cranking out 950 lb-ft of torque.

Related: 10 Most Badass Production Engines Ever Built (1 To 16 Cylinders)

The Legendary 426 Hemi Was Chrysler’s Performance Advantage

426_hemi_nhra_race_engine
Via NHRA

Racing teams aboard Chrysler-powered race cars didn’t have super speedway glory to write home about, but that changed in February 1964 when Chrysler offered a new engine for teams racing the Dodge and Plymouth cars in the NASCAR Grand National Series.

This new engine was the 426 cu-in Hemi V8, Chrysler’s new performance advantage that upset the Daytona 500, with the 426 Hemi-powered cars placing first, second, and third. They couldn't leave the remaining positions to the also-rans, instead snatching two more spots in the top ten. Who among the spectators back then realized they’d just witnessed the birth of a legendary track and drag strip motor that would ultimately inspire a year-long celebration of the engine half a century later?

It didn’t matter that Chrysler was neither the first to come up with the Hemi-head design, nor was the 1960s the company’s first time using it. What matters is that the Hemi provided the much-needed advantage to unseat the Fords that dominated the 1963 Daytona 500. The directive to develop a Ford-slaying mill came straight from Chrysler president Lynn Townsend.

Sources: Wikipedia, Hemmings