Inline six. Torque monster? How come?

Let talk about a staight eight.

 

In American cars the six cylinder engines were the base engines, tuned for economy, torque, smoothness and long life. They were for people who didn't care much about cars.

If you wanted horsepower you bought the optional V8.

Therefore, the sixes got the reputation of being high torque, low RPM, low horsepower engines. Because they were. But they don't have to be.

There were short stroke sixes like the 170 cu in slant six and even earlier, the 52 Ford 216 six. Both these engines produced amazing power when souped up. Smokey Yunick said the slant six responded to a few hop up tricks, more than any other engine he ever saw. This was the Powerpak option that took the 170 from 101 to 148HP with a few bolt on parts.

Some rodders who experimented with the Ford 6 in the early fifties preferred it to the flathead V8 because it was easier to hop up, and you could get more HP without making any radical changes like boring and stroking.

This all ended when Ford got an OHV V8 in 54, and Valiant Dart and Barracuda got the 273 V8 in 64.

The point is, the six cylinder engine got the reputation of being a torque engine for reasons that had nothing to do with the number of cylinders.