“Four-speed, dual-quad, PosiTraction 409”

After playing “She’s real fine, my 409” by the Beach Boys over-and-over to go with the other day’s ’59 Mercury blog, I recalled the explosion of sheer elation prompted by Chevrolet’s introduction of its 409 motor back in late 1961.
I was in twelfth grade. Chevrolet had already departed its image of Granny’s car with Ed Cole’s 265 cubic-inch V8 in 1955, a phenomenal motor that would rev to the Moon.
The 409 sealed it. No longer was Chevrolet Granny’s car.
I remember parrying a friend in seventh grade: “Ford;” “Chevy;” “Ford;” “Chevy.”
Our family had a ’53 Chevy, the ultimate Granny’s car.
His family had a ’53 Ford. It’s motor was the hoary old FlatHead since 1932, but at least it was a V8.
Another friend wrenched one of those Flattys into his ’41 Chevy, replacing its stodgy Stovebolt six.
After 1955, the desired V8 was the Ed Cole motor. My Ford-partial friend ended up with a ’56 Chevy in high-school.

“She’s real fine, my 409.”

The 409 was Chevrolet’s 348 cubic-inch truck-motor, bored and stroked, and then hot-rodded.
In earlier years Chevrolet was installing hot-rodded 348s in its cars. I remember sending away for literature — which they sent, as if I was a potential buyer at age-15.
Bored and stroked the 409 was troublesome. Can you say “casting porosity?” Technicians had to inspect each 409 block to make sure it wouldn’t leak antifreeze into the cylinder-bores.
The cylinder-walls of a 348 were thick enough to skonk antifreeze leaks. But bored out to a 409, the cylinder-walls ended up thin enough to chance porosity leaks.

A ’61 bubble-top Bel Air 409 (very rare).

Grumpy’s ’63 409 is behind this ’62; that’s probably the one I saw.

Would-be hot-rodders wanted a 409. Instead of having to trial-and-error in your backyard, you could go to your Chevrolet dealer and buy a hotrod already set up.
And a 409 Chevy was strong. I started going to a local drag-strip while in college, and Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins of Jenkins Competition was drag-racing one.
His driver was Dave Strickler. Jenkins was just tuning.
Nothing would beat that Jenkins 409. Strickler was always driving back to the pits, his 409 having beat its competition.
That is, until Dodge and Plymouth started showing up with 426 Hemi-powered drag sedans. Jenkins had to get one himself.
Jenkins’ 409 was advertising for Jenkins Competition.
He made his living tuning drag-cars, mainly Chevrolet.
I’d see many Chevys at the drag-strip with a “Jenkins Competition” sticker.
The 409-Chevy was a siren-song. Hot-rodders traded their ’55-’57 Chevys so they could get a 409.
So here I’d be driving our ’53 Chevy through a parking-lot, and I’d notice a ’62 or ’63 Chevy two-door. I’d drive closer, and there on the side was the 409 medallion. YOW-ZUH!
Chevrolet went on later to replace the 409 with its more powerful “Big-Block” motor, with “porcupine” heads, valve-angles that encouraged better breathing. Ball-stud rockers allowed that.
The Porcupine motor came in 1964 for NASCAR.
What blew me away most is the 409 surpassed the 400 cubic-inch displacement barrier.
Manufacturers had been inching toward it. Chrysler made a 392 cubic-inch Hemi.
But Chevy did it, and I was thrilled. 409 cubic-inches. “She’s real fine, my 409.”

• That headline is a link to the You-Tube Beach-Boys 409 video. Click it, dudes!
• “Four-speed” is the transmission, a manual with four forward speeds, shifted by a floor-lever. “Dual Quads” is two four-barrel carburetors, which made the motor breathe extremely well. Most cars at that time had only a single one- or two-barrel. “PosiTraction” was a special differential option to offset once a tire broke traction and began spinning, all the power went to that spinning tire. I’ve never known how “Posi” worked, although it may be clutches. If a tire wanted to spin, power was delivered to the other tire, maybe even both.
• The Chevrolet overhead-valve inline “Stovebolt-six” was introduced in the 1929 model-year at 194+ cubic inches. It continued production for years, upgraded to four main bearings (from three) for the 1937 model-year. In 1950 the Stovebolt was upsized to 235.5 cubic inches (from 216), and later upgrades included full-pressure lubrication and hydraulic (as opposed to mechanical) valve-tappets. The Stovebolt was produced clear through the 1963 model-year, but replaced with a new seven main-bearing (as opposed to less — like four) inline-six engine in the 1964 model-year. The Stovebolt was also known as “the cast-iron wonder;” called the “Stovebolt” because various bolts could be replaced by stuff from the corner hardware.
• Bill Jenkins got the nickname “Grumpy” because he wasn’t very talkative, and would walk away from talkers.