RE: 325ci Cobra small block

[slither]

At 6:10 in the recently posted YouTube video from Peter Klutt/Legendary on the Flip-top, there is a picture of a letter from Ray Geddes regarding using the car for testing multiple engines, including the alloy 390 and the iron 427 amongst others. One of those other engines was a 325ci small block.

I have looked around and did some searches here, but cannot find much of any info on it. Is there a good reference on that particular engine and its specs, like bore and stroke, etc.? Did it ever see use in racing?  Seems I have a vague recollection that Gurney raced it... 

Any tips are much appreciated!

[pbf777]

    It seems most of the references I've come across of the "325 C.I.D. engine" was that it was "under development", seemingly to be suffering from "reliability" problems, and yes it saw some actual race participation, but perhaps was most often deemed as a "secondary standard" under development, with some trepidation.   

    Not that I have come across any specification data as produced by Ford Motor Co. or Shelby American stating what the actual bore & stroke was, or that there was only one possibility attempted, but I'd probably believe the the bore was the standard 4" coupled to a crankshaft stoke of 3.25", which actually equates to something over 326 C.I.D. closer to 327 C.I.D., but since Pontiac had a "326" and Chevy had a "327" I guessing the Ford guys just settled on the "325" moniker?

     The other possibility might be with the bore at 4.30" (aka. "thirty-over) coupled to a crankshaft stroke of 3.200", which would result again into something just over 326 C.I.D..  It would come down to which issues the engineers were more concerned of, "stroke length" or the "over-bore", each bringing to the table drawbacks that could lead to problems? 

    Hopefully someone else can add to the meager information that I have, as I too find this an interesting subject!   

    Scott.

[kranky]

The Gurney Lotus 19 at Daytona 1965 ran that particular engine...ran as the "rabbit" to burn out the competition.  Dan Gerber is also noted to have run that engine in his Peregrine Special (ex-Bob Johnson car).