Gurney was running in England and had a two-second lead with two laps to go when a wheel broke off; the Brits didn’t let him race in the following round ...

but it technically was not a 409. A special version, made especially for drag racing, increased the stroke of the 409 V8 by .150 inches to a total of 3.65 inches, with a compression ratio of 13.8:1.