For the "motor heads" on the forum, Motortrend has a great article on the history and origination of the Chevy small block V8's. Notice the paragraph regarding the V8 that nobody mentions......available in the early 1900's. That does make for an interesting trivia question......"Chevy first produced the V8 in....??????".


http://www.motortrend.com/features/c...ugh_the_years/

 

Snoopy,
Thanks for the link to the Chevy motors!!!
Very interesting read.
Mo

 

Good article. Now, they have do a history of other GM engine divisions, as well. Hopefully, they do a Pontiac version next. They're by far, my favorite of GM engines; before they went with corporate engines.

Dave

 

The answer to the trivia question is 1917. Here's a photo of a 1917 Series D V-8 Chevrolet, the engine was a 288 cube OHV unit producing 36 horsepower. Production of the V-8 Chevrolet ended in 1918.

 

Snoopy-

Great link. Thank You..

Amazing Chevy never made another V-8 since 1917 (I just learned that) till 1955 with the 265"

And Ford was cranking out the V-8 Flatties since I believe 1932 till 1953, then OHV (finally)...

 

Part of the falling out between Louis Chevrolet and Billy Durant was Chevrolet's desire to build high performance premium automobiles(for their time), and Durant's desire to build a line of affordable light cars to compete with Ford.

Even though Chevrolet was long gone from his namesake company by the time the Series D came out, it was more in keeping with the cars he envisioned to wear his name.

The small block V-8 was a response to the frumpy image of Chevrolet in the early 50's and the need for more horsepower to motivate the increasingly larger and heavier cars. When it came down to it, Chevy sixes could show their heels to a flathead Ford, especially the anemic 60 horse V-8's.

 

Very interesting, did not know about the Series D'

Yes agreed, about a chevy straight 6 whopping a V-8 ford...

 

I had the pleasure of driving a Series D about 15 years ago, not a barn burner by modern standards, but it sounded like a small block Chevy....that same familiar rumble...so cool!

 

I bet that was cool to wheel..

 

It was actually intimidating more than anything, there are less than five existing Series D Chevy cars left in running order, the phrase "you break it you bought it" was foremost in my mind that day.

It drove like other cars I've driven of that era, all the controls require a gosh almighty shove, the cone clutch engages with all the grace of a bear trap, and until you get used to handling the spark advance and throttle on the steering column...you find yourself running out of hands.

All that being said, it was neater than hell driving a piece of history like that. Even though my '37 is twenty years newer than a Series D, the level of driving comfort and advancement is light years ahead. Once you overlook the lack of power anything, the miserable 6 volt lights, and any resemblance to what we call "handling" these days...compared to a 1917 model, my '37 Chevy is a modern vehicle.