Building an engine is a project that I think every gearhead needs to try at least once in their lifetime. I know many of you may have assembled a 5.0 or two over the years, and some also may have given mod-motor assembly a good try. We saw this collection of parts sitting on a table in the parking lot at "Building 12," Jack Roush's private museum which houses hundreds of absolutely phenomenal Fords. The parts in this photo, which make up the entire contents of two 408 cubic-inch Windsor engines, were gathered and waiting for the start of an "Engine-Builders' Challenge;" a contest that pitted two pairs of Roush engine assemblers against each other (and the clock) to see who could build a complete engine and get it fired up and running, in the quickest time. On your mark, get set...

An event of this sort really is something to behold in person. Watching two people (on both teams) work together so smoothly was very impressive, and the speed with which they performed each task of their engine builds was amazing. OK, so, maybe the blocks and various parts were prelubed before the event, which saved a bit of time, but the bottom line is the guys at Roush definitely know what they're doing when it comes to putting an engine together. Oh...how quickly did they get 'em done? How does 27 minutes sound? That's how long it took for the winners to make some noise in the headers, and the second-place team was right behind them--about a minute-and-a-half later. Don't try this at home!