I watched the video in another thread about the 69 Hurst Olds. My dream car is a 68 Hurst Olds, unfortunately, I seriously doubt I’ll ever be lucky enough to own one.

However, watching the video got me thinking. The 68-69 Hurst Olds were the only 2 engines that used the D heads, correct? Same with the 70 W-30 and the F head, 71 used H, etc. it seems to me like the cost of casting, machining, tooling, etc a head for such a limited production run would have been very expensive. Automakers are pretty tight with money, if a single clip,bolt, part can be substituted for another at the cost of a penny, you can bet they would do it. A penny isn’t much money, until it’s multiplied by a few million cars. Suddenly, that penny adds up to a big chunk of change!!

My point, were those special heads possibly intended for a wider use later on? Or just a case of the cost to build special cars justified the expense?

I work in a factory, I know there are people walking around with clipboards who’s sole purpose is to figure out how to trim the cost of doing business. While a good portion of the cost cutting seems pretty stupid and trivial, once again it adds up.

Just curios about this.

 

It was worth it for the performance. Those cost cutters are trying to save cost without sacrificing anything. This is one reason long time customers get angry; they buy a product that runs forever and finally fails, and they expect that out the the next product, which has had all that extra performance removed down to an acceptable lifespan. The first one was "too good," and this new one is "good enough." It's a difference in philosophy between consumers and manufacturers, but that is where the cost cutters usually go; the extras.

 

Pretty sure 68-69 W30 400s got D heads too. That way their cost was amortized over more than just 1500 cars plus service parts.

A good showing at the drag strip was important enough to the factory back then that they'd make limited run performance stuff. Probably lost money on it but there are intangible benefits. Image was important then.

 

The machining cost is the same for any heads. The only real difference in the casting was the core. I once priced casting tri-carb intakes (my brother-in-law runs the pattern shop for a local foundry) and it was less than $4000 for producing the raw castings. I can't remember how many the mold was good for but the intake wasn't particularly expensive to produce.

 

Ah, the old saying “Race on Sunday, sell on Monday” philosophy. I guess a winning race car is cheap advertising!

I didn’t know the 68-69 W-30 cars also used the D heads, that would certainly help the cost per unit. And I failed to consider the machining cost would be the same for any casting. See, that’s why I don’t carry a clipboard at work!!