The outline was simple. Make it large, make it live, feed it pump gas. A tall-deck aluminum cylinder block stuffed with one of Joe Lunati's big arms would yield a displacement of 632 ci. Instead of attaching a popular power-adder or combination of such, we'd let the bore and the stroke do the talking and see how it liked the street life under the cowl of our revitalized '67 Crusher Camaro project car.
Kevin Thompson built this unexploded bomb out of his Hot Rod Solutions shop in Memphis. KT, a local legend for his tube-chassis Rat-motored Bronco and lately his 580-inch plain-brown-wrapper 9.40-second '65 Chevelle ("Sleeper," HRM Jan. '99), volunteered to build and install the Rat clone stroker in the crouch of the Crusher. He documented every step.
If the all-aluminum architecture wasn't enough of a nod to modernity, we included a F.A.S.T. electronically controlled fuel injection system commanded by the latest hardware (and software) for supreme tuning capability. KT also included a Lunati solid-lifter roller camshaft rather than one governed by hydraulic tappets. "The internal dimensions of the engine were beyond the performance limits of a juice cam. It wouldn't provide enough lift or duration to move the volume of air that 632 cubic inches require."
Were we citizens of a more progressive state, we would have access to reasonably priced street performance gasoline. In California, the highest available octane rating at the pump is 91, and even that is oxygenated for six months of the year. Were the spark level more advantageous, we'd be able to run more static compression than the 10.0:1-plus we have now.
Considering the size of the engine, some of you will undoubtedly scoff at the relatively low specific output of 750 hp, though it's at a managable 5,800 rpm; rounded off it computes to 1.2 hp/ci, and on the face it isn't particularly impressive. But the first time you open those throttle bores halfway, you realize the meaning of mortality. You realize how awesome torque really is-like 750 lb-ft at 4,800. You realize that street tires are as ineffectual as if they had marbles beneath them. There is more grunt than you would ever need on a public thoroughfare. When you goose the throttle at 80, the tires haze and lay down 30 feet of rubber! Let's see how it's done.
