Game Changer: The Chevrolet small-block V8

Once arch-rival Ford had stormed the automotive world with its first V8 model in the 1932 Ford Coupe, it seemed inevitable that Chevrolet would counter with a V8 of its own.

It didn’t happen though, and decades would pass before General Motors’ biggest brand could match Ford and what was regarded as the world’s first affordable V8.

Other sections of GM’s empire were by the 1940s making V8s, so the technology existed, just not the desire. Chevrolet seemed to stoically believe that its buyers didn’t want the maintenance costs or fuel consumption that accompanied two extra cylinders.

The arrival in 1955 of a brand-new Chevrolet shape, plus the need to properly power its Corvette sports car, meant access to an eight-cylinder engine could not wait any longer. And what an engine it would become.

Chevrolet’s 265 cubic-inch (4.3-litre) pushrod V8 initially produced 121kW – exactly the same as Ford’s new overhead-valve, Y Block 272.

Like the Ford, Chevrolet’s 265 motor could be fitted with a four-barrel carburettor for extra performance. Unlike Ford’s, it could for 1957 also be specified with ‘Dual Quad’ carburettors, fuel-injection or a supercharger.

By 1958 and following a capacity increase, the 4.6-litre (283ci) fuel-injected V8 was producing 290hp (216kW) and gave Corvette sports versions a 200km/h top speed.

The small-block during the 1960s grew progressively larger and by 1970, a typical Corvette or Camaro engine displaced 5.7 litres. Output for 1971 reached 245kW but that was the peak as performance was whittled away by emission controls.

Not until 1990 was the potential of the GM small-block unleashed again, this time by tuning house Callaway. It fitted a 5.7-litre injected engine with twin turbochargers to produce 390hp (287kW) and a Corvette that ran the standing 400 metres on street tyres in 13.1 seconds.

Australia had seen regular sales of Chevrolet small blocks since 1960, when they became the standard in locally assembled Chevrolets and Pontiacs.

From 1968, when Holden adopted V8 power for its mainstream models, thousands of these engines in 5.0-, 5.3- and 5.7-litre capacities were fitted to the company’s Kingswoods, Premiers and Monaros.

The last local use of a carburettor-fed Chevrolet small-block came in 1974 when Holden ended V8 imports and discontinued production of GTS 350 and LS 350 Monaros. But that was not the end of Australia’s involvement with the famous power unit.

When Holden abandoned production of its own 5.0-litre V8 in 1997, Chevrolet re-emerged as a supplier of engines to suit the local Commodore, Statesman and reborn Monaro.

The LS1 V8 was a brand-new engine, slightly smaller than the original 350 but still designated 5.7 litres. It used an aluminium block with six main bearings, fuel-injection and coil packs, but with valves still operated via traditional pushrods.

The 5.7L Gen III V8 first appeared in the Commodore with the VT Series II of 1999, but the most powerful and desirable of the Chevrolet derivatives was Callaway’s C4B, which appeared in limited ‘300’ editions of the HSV GTS.

Like the label said, Callaway versions of the Chevrolet V8 were tuned to produce 300 very tractable kiloWatts and over 500Nm of torque.

Finally in 2009, a Gen 4 version of the small-block was bored, stroked and strengthened to displace 427ci (7.0 litres) and produce more power than big-block V8s of the same capacity that were raced during the 1960s.

It would appear locally in the Monaro that won the Bathurst 24-hour race and then in HSV’s short-lived W427 from 2008, before the GM small-block V8 bowed out in Australian-made vehicles with the final and finest 6.2-litre LS3 V8-powered 2017 Holden Commodore SS.

High-performance small-block V8s remain available in various Chevrolet products, from pick-ups and police cars to 315km/h Corvettes, including the fifth-generation 6.2L Gen 5 LT1-powered C7, the supercharged LT4-powered C7 Z06 and the current C8 Corvette Stingray with its 369kW 6.2-litre LT2 V8.

The upcoming Z06 version will bring a new 5.5-litre LT6 naturally-aspirated GM small-block V8 with double overhead cams, a flatplane-crank, 8600 rev-limit and outputs of 500kW and 623Nm, and the subsequent Corvette ZR1 is topped to score a twin-turbo version of the LT6 good for more than 630kW/750Nm.

So even as the automotive world shifts its focus to electrification and governments around the world look to ban sales of new combustion-powered vehicles, the future of GM’s small-block V8 seems assured for another decade at least.

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