One of the rules of thumb we live by on the dirt track is "There's no replacement for displacement!" The 261 engine can be bored and stroked to about 300 cubic inches, with a corresponding increase in horsepower and torque. It's not cheap, and you'll need to find a machinist who knows his stuff to offset-grind the crankshaft but the 261 engine has a great deal of potential. When I was pit crewing a team of "hobby class" racers at the Nashville Fairgrounds track back in the early 1960's, the only real competition our two 46 Ford coupes with flathead V-8 engines had was a 51 Chevy coupe with a "Canadian Pontiac" 261 in it. All of us were doing the NASCAR thing and cheating out the wazoo, so there's no telling what internal mods the 261 had. It had LOTS of torque off the turns, so I always thought somebody had put a stroker crank in it!
Jerry
