OK—350 hp with a two-holer on a 289 Ford. Here's why: Frank Currie and the folks at Currie Enterprises like to play hard—from rockcrawling Jeeps to a 200-mph street roadster to 100-mph desert racers to many Great American Race wins. But they've never attempted La Carrera Panamericana, a six-day race that starts near Guatemala and covers 1,800 miles of the world's most challenging "paved" roads before ending up in Zacatecas, south of the border from Laredo, Texas. It's a tribute to the original Mexican Road Race run from 1950-1954 and reintroduced in 1988. For the 2001 running, Frank Currie contracted engine-builder Ed Taylor to build a 289 for the '66 Shelby GT350 clone that he'll be entering in the Historic C class.
Running in Historic C requires an engine of the same type and displacement originally installed in the car, no more than a 0.040 overbore, iron cylinder heads, and (get this) a 500-cfm two-barrel carb. What's most spooky is that entrants cannot bring their own fuel—it's either Pemex or push it. For those who don't know, Pemex is the prevailing brand of gasoline south of the border. It is sold in 87 and 92 octane ratings, but both are basically dog water, and the higher count isn't popular in rural areas, so racers have learned to anticipate the worst and embrace low compression.
The hot 289 two-barrel shown here made an impressive 352 hp at 6,700 rpm and 316 lb-ft at 5,000 rpm—on 87-octane gas—using a sensible combination of parts and preparation.
