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Originally Posted by Richmalbill
Actually Chrysler were pretty late on the Hemi scene. Riley were a particularly accomplised exponent of the pushrod hemi engine in both twin cam four cylinder and triple-cam V8 form. Way ahead of their time.
The Jaguar XK engine also pre-dates the Chrysler Hemi by a fair margin and was a DOHC Hemi.
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True to some degree but we are talking the 426 Hemi engines, not 4 cylinders or triple cam setups. Chrysler were making Hemi style engines for aircraft before they were dropping them between shock towers, 1950 was when they started using them in consumer cars. The XK was 4.2L producing a lowly 265hp?, some 160hp (at the least) less than the elephant engine. No one came close, far from it, in producing the power and torque that the famous 426 Hemi did and does even to this day with crate 528ci engines available and modern aluminum 426 Hemi blocks still for sale from Ma Mopar.
The XK heads were a Hemi design yes, but you aint seen heads till you've seen 426 Heads which were not identical (far from it) to the XK style chambers. The 426 was double the size of anything close to being classed in the same league.
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