We (273 owners) are pretty passionate about our little motors. They don't
make 500 horse or make our cars run in the 9's. They are just fun little engines to drive and are pretty respectable from a horsepower standpoint. Ma Mopar was messing around with small motors in 64 and came up with the LA273. Up till that time all the small cube engines were physically too big to fit under the hood of their new smaller A Bodies. They even had to lay the straight 6 on it's side for it to fit under the low hoods of these new models.
The HP273 version came out in 65 and was needed to compete with the 283 and 289's that the competition had. It's impressive that Mopar would produce a engine with 10.5:1 forged pistons, forged crank, solid lifter cam, shaft mounted adjustible rockers,open plenum 4 barrel intake and carb, dual point distributor, chrome pcv and oil fill caps (borrowed from the 426 Hemi) and black wrinkle finished valve covers with alumunum heat sinks. It even came with a chrome un-silenced air cleaner. I don't think Mopar has ever produced such a deluxe combination of parts for any engine in it's history. That's why I like mine. and I'm sure others would agree. toolmanmike
