Whats in a name...

A really nice sounding Mustang drove by the dealership this morning and the rumble started a long conversation involving many found memories of Mustangs from quite of few of our youths. One of my co-workers made the mistake of mentioning how as a teen he dreamed of owning a ‘five point oh’ stang when he was old enough. The hair on my neck stood at attention as I launched into a lecture intended to illustrate my issue with the term ‘five point oh’ first because ‘oh’ is a letter NOT a number and second, I really miss the days of cubic inch descriptions of engines. He immediately understood my calling him on the ‘oh’ reference and replied with “ok, then I always wanted a ‘five point zero’ Mustang! But what’s the big deal about using liters as a term, everyone uses liters, it’s the standard.”  Well that only made things worse for the poor guy as I made him listen to me rant for another hour or so, pining for the days when American iron was called by its measurement in good ole cubic inches!  As a kid I spent more time in a garage than a class room, the pits at OCIR were my second home and for me, engines in American cars will always be known by terms such as; four twenty seven-side oiler, four forty wedge with a six pack, three fifty with a four bolt main, four twenty eight cobra jet, four  twenty seven rat and of course the most recognized of them all the four twenty six hemi!  Yes, know cubic inches are not proper fluidic measurement and therefore are not the best to measure a round cylinder like those in and engine but I say whatever! It’s what was used from the beginning of American engine building and what I was raised on so I aint changing! After my tirade my friend asked me a simple question, “so how many cubic inches is the Mustang ‘five point zero’ then?” I regained my smug grin and began an explanation chock full of praise for Fords amazing ‘three oh two’ family of engines including the three fifty one Windsor and all the way up to the granddaddy four sixty. The response I got was a very simple; “but Mike, you said yourself that ‘oh’ is a letter and not a number…”
Damn!  :)

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