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The V8 engine – Part two
7 months ago
The V8 concept is more than 125 years old
Things get clearer when we come to the first road-going production car fitted with a V8 – it was a 1905 Rolls-Royce, fitted with a 3.5-litre V8, albeit only briefly. Just three were built before Rolls switched to the straight-sixes that would make its reputation for silent, smooth power.
The Great War gave the V8 an enormous boost – the configuration was very well suited to military aircraft use: its short length-to-power ratio meant that a lot of power could be fitted into the nose of aircraft like the SPAD series of fighters, without pushing the centre of gravity of the aircraft too far forward.
As peace returned to the world and engineers (thankfully) went back to making better and faster cars rather than figuring out better ways to kill people, the V8 flourished. And it is in the interwar years that I would argue the V8’s true strength emerged – as a blue-collar power-for the-people engine. You can keep your fancy opera-singing V12s and smarty-pants Teutonic flat-sixes – if you want honest power and you have to work hard for your money, a V8 gives you the horses you need without breaking the bank. And it was deep in the Depression era that that bluest-of-blue-collar companies, Ford, designed the first of a series of iconic American V8s – the ’32 Flathead: so-named because of the clenched-fist look of the cylinder heads, wide and flat to accommodate the side-valves. None of your fancy Yurrupean overhead valves or cams here – the Flathead ran good ol’ side-valves, just like Henry liked ’em.
"The Ford V8 went viral, together with gun-totin’ molls and gangsters in sharp suits. It was small-town America, kicking back against The Man"
I guess the impact of this first people’s V8 is best summarised by a letter from one satisfied not-quite-customer, writing to Henry Ford back in 1934:
Tulsa, Okla 10th April
Mr Henry Ford Detroit, Mich.
Dear Sir: – While I still have got breath in my lungs I will tell you what a dandy car you make. I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble the Ford has got ever other car skinned and even if my business hasen’t been strickly legal it don’t hurt enything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V8 –
Yours truly
Clyde Champion Barrow
The fact that the letter may well be a clever fake, and one quite possibly perpetrated by a creative guerilla marketeer in Ford’s own press office is almost beside the point: the Ford V8 went viral, together with gun-totin’ molls and gangsters in sharp suits. It was small-town America, kicking back against The Man and rejecting the values that led to the Depression and the dustbowl. And some of that dubious romance has stuck to the V8 engine ever since, not that it was much help to Barrow and girlfriend Bonnie Parker when their Ford Model 40B Deluxe sedan was riddled with over 120 rounds courtesy of local law enforcement…
“Its various generations have given rise to some thunderous powerplants, propelling generations of muscle cars, trucks, minivans, boats, planes – you name it. The tag ‘#LSeverything’ is a tribute to the versatility of the engine.”
Ford’s V8 was the original, and it has evolved over the years from the original side-valve Flathead, putting out maybe 65bhp to the 760bhp of the modern Mustang GT500.
But the early 1950s was the era of the V8. As America boomed after World War Two, customers wanted big cars, chrome and fins – and powerful engines to shift them. Gas prices were low, and talented engineers were ready to apply the technologies developed during the war to design those engines. Ford had paved the way, but its arch rivals thought they could do better.
Arguably the most famous V8 of all time is the Chevrolet small and big-block family of engines, designed in the boom years of the early ’50s. These engines range from 4.3 litres to 6.6 litres for the ‘small’ or ‘Mouse’ motor, and 5.7 litres to 8.2 litres for the big-block ‘Rat’. The small-block was the brainchild of Ed Cole, whom we’ve already come across. Its simple iron construction, coupled with relatively sophisticated overhead valves with hydraulic lifters made it tough but high-revving. Its various generations have given rise to some thunderous powerplants, propelling generations of muscle cars, trucks, minivans, boats, planes – you name it. The tag ‘#LSeverything’ is a tribute to the versatility of the engine.
The Hemi has powered everything over the years, from muscle cars to muscle trucks
Chrysler fans need not panic – I’ve not forgotten the Hemi. While Ford and GM duked it out with various iterations of their respective bent-eights, the third of the then Detroit Big Three was not going to be left behind. The Chrysler offering, launched in 1951, was distinguished by its hemispherical combustion chambers – theoretically offering more efficient combustion at the price of more complex, steeply inclined valves. This was technology that Chrysler had mastered during World War Two when building prototype aircraft engines for the P47 Republic fighter. The ‘Hemi’ is up there in the pantheon of all-time great American engines. Versions are still in production, and long may that last. Maybe the ultimate accolade to just how solid these engines are is that they form the basis for Top Fuel dragsters. The engines in these zero-altitude missiles are still (albeit loosely) based on the original Hemi design. Power levels are over 11,000bhp – this from an engine that was designed in 1951 and has roots back to World War Two fighter aircraft.
Chrysler and its Hemi also wins the game for epic engine naming. Now, Ford plays a strong suit here – Voodoo, Godzilla and CobraJet are just three of the Blue Oval’s coolest engine names over the years. GM comes a distant third in my book with such poor offerings such as Mighty Mouse, Turbo-Fire, Turbo-Thrust and Turbo-Jet (none of which was turbocharged, of course, though the Turbo-Rocket in the ’62 Oldsmobile Jetfire was), although GM upped the game more recently with the Blackwing version of its V8 found under the hood of the Cadillac CT6-V, which really was V8-powered despite sounding to the contrary.
But Chrysler had it licked from day one. The first Hemi was called FirePower, then FireDome, and since then it’s come up with such corkers as Golden Lion, the wonderful SonoRamic Commando and finally, Hellephant, the aptly-named and epic 7-litre 1000bhp+ version of the Hemi that is still available right now as a ‘crate’ engine. Naming game: that’s game, set and match to Chrysler.
Now, I could pick any number of other famous V8s, from the tiny 1991cc motor that powered the Ferrari 208 GT4 to cheat Italian 2-litre tax laws, to the hulking 18-litre Ford GAA that powered some versions of the Sherman tank, but I won’t.
Instead I’ll hand over here to you, the good people of Ti, to nominate your favourites. Just to get the ball rolling, here’s mine:
Sorry, US readers, I know it’s heresy, but my favourite V8 is German. But I don’t feel too bad about that – I think I’ve sufficiently underlined the fact that the V8 is the Bruce Springsteen of powerplants to allow me to pick a non-US engine for myself. I first came across it in 2007, when I was hanging around the Nürburgring, idly watching cars come over the brink by the Brünnchen viewing area, scene of many a YouTube disaster.
I heard it well before I saw it – a deep V8 rumble, with an overlaid menacing roar as the revs climbed: like a blend of World War Two fighter and drag racer. It crested the brow and roared past towards Pflanzgarten in a bow-wave of aural menace – a camo’d-up Mercedes C63 AMG, with that wonderful 6.2-litre V8 behind the three-pointed star. I am a fully paid-up straight and flat-six devotee, but even to my ears, it’s still one of the most spine-tingling engine notes I’ve ever heard. So I nominate the 6.2-litre AMG M156 ‘63’ engine as my personal fave.
Over to you, folks – what’s your favourite V8?
