A very worthy feature car indeed. Probably the only 61 409 Parisienne race car in existence??

This is absolutely a fantasic car. I saw it prominently in the latest edition of Performance Improvements magazine as well as Jim's 55. I still have to vist Jim's shop.

LOVE IT !!!!!!

The build thread on this car was awsome. Great pick for car of the month! 

Thanks for all the kind comments.

Just to update things a bit I should add that we finally have the new aluminum 409 block we've been waiting for.

This is the first block that Bob Walla has delivered, here he is carrying it. As you might guess, it's a lot lighter than the iron blocks.

We were hoping for about 540 cubic inches from this engine but I think the liners will be a bit thin if we bore it that far so I think we'll probably go for about 520ci. Bob is also making iron blocks. They'll go out to 540ci no problem.

The cylinder heads will be the limiting factor in the horsepower department. I think the heads we have now should support at least 750 hp but we may get another set and modify them so that we can go up over 800hp. Either way, we'd like to keep the revs down below 7,000rpm to keep the engine somewhat reliable.

It'll take some time to get this engine together so I don't think it'll be ready to go until next spring. We're hoping to be running in the mid nine second range with the new engine.

By the way, here's another thing you don't see every day. Bob cast a few sets of aluminum 409 exhaust manifolds. We're going to try a set on a street car with a stock 409. I think we may get the insides ceramic coated just to help their chances of surviving. I think they'll be OK because the car is mainly a cruiser and it's well tuned, but only time will tell.