To a warm rodder or racer, a rat motor is a Chevrolet major block V-8. Powerful and wonderfully engineered, how did this very well-revered engine come by the nick-name “rat?”
From James Cagney’s well known line “…that dirty, double-crossin’ rat” to the significantly-maligned rat finks of the fifties, calling anyone or a little something a rat is the best insult. When one thing is old, utilized up and falling aside, it is “ratty.”
So it is to some degree stunning that the significant Chevy has acquired the monicker of rat.
In the early 1960s, very long right before the introduction of the initially rat motor, a David and Goliath confrontation was getting spot on the nation’s dragstrips. The Chrysler Hemi had become the dominate power in the Prime Gas and Leading Gasoline groups, gradually changing the Cadillac, Lincoln and Oldsmobile engines that beforehand controlled these classes.
When the Chrysler Hemi produced gobs of energy, it was also bodily much larger and heavier than other V-8s. The massive engine promptly earned the soubriquet of Elephant motor owing to its dimension. An elephant motor with a GMC supercharger seemed tremendous when set up in the common tube frame sling-shot dragster chassis.
Whilst the huge elephants grew to become the de-facto typical in Top rated Gasoline, there was yet another engine that could maintain its individual from the Hemi. Many groups took a distinctive method, deciding on the legendary small-block Chevy to energy their dragsters. As generally as not, they failed to hassle with a supercharger, preferring a basic set of injectors.
On paper it was an unequal contest. The blown hemi was far additional effective than the minuscule Chevy, and it appeared that the Chevy did not have prayer against the Chrysler in a quarter-mile race.
Having said that, the tire technologies of the day was in favor of the Chevy rails.
While the big elephant motors produced a large volume of horsepower, the tires of the working day were unequal to the undertaking of offering that energy to the observe. Significantly of that electric power went up in smoke, as the massive Chrysler rails burned the tires almost the complete duration of the dragstip.
The tiny Chevies could burn their tires as perfectly, but their lessen electricity allowed the tires to hook up and acquire traction although the huge hemis were nevertheless spinning their wheels. The mix less wheelspin, lighter general pounds and increased RPMs authorized the minor Chevy powered vehicles to give the elephant motor cars and trucks a run for their funds.
Though the hemi teams weren’t truly afraid of the minimal Chevy dragsters, the modest blocks tended to make them much more than a very little nervous. There was no shame to reduce to a blown hemi device, but it was positively embarrassing to unfastened to an injected Chevy.
An individual remembered the fable that the only creatures elephants are fearful of are mice, and began referring to the small Chevy as the mouse motor. As a result the elephant and mouse motors vied for racing honors on dragstrips through the place.
The mouse-motor’s part as elephant-killer not very last very long. Tire and clutch technologies continued to enhance, and the significant elephants have been eventually ready to supply much more ability to the keep track of. By the early sixties, the mouse motor could no longer plague the major Chryslers in the Prime Eliminator ranks. The small block Chevy was nevertheless hugely common in the altered, fuel coupe and modified classes. However it seldom ran versus the significant elephant motors any for a longer period, the motor was however regarded as the mouse motor.
All through that interval, Chevrolet and Normal Motors were adhering to a rigorous non-racing plan. It is perfectly recognised that some GM by-handed the formal stance by giving pieces and complex enable to racers with no management’s know-how.
Legend has it that through the early sixties, particular Chevy racers showed up at several race tracks with a weird new motor below the hood. It was not a mouse motor, and it wasn’t the massive 409 V-8 that the Seashore Boys immortalized in song. It was a mysterious, all new Chevy V-8.
The secret only lasted a shorter even though, as Chevrolet introduced a new huge block V8 in 1965. Offered to start with as a 396 cubic inch edition, the engine at some point advanced to displacements of 402, 427, 454 CI. GM even provided a monster 572 CI version of the engine.
Immediately after the motor was introduced, a lot of people today even now continued to refer to it as the mystery engine. When the valve handles were eradicated, sizzling rodders began calling it the porcupine V8, because not like the mouse motor which experienced the valve stems lined up in a neat row, the valves in the new engine had been canted at many angles.
Other racers noted that while the engine was not a accurate hemisperical design and style, it was not precisely a wedge head, either. Consequently the motor attained a different identify: the semi-hemi.
Search by means of photographs of Chevrolet race cars and trucks from the era, and you locate many illustrations of cars and trucks with the conditions Mystery Motor or Semi Hemi painted on the hood.
For most rodders and racers, however, there was only 1 legitimate moniker for the new motor. If the compact Chevy V-8 was a mouse motor, it really is more substantial, more potent, fiercer sibling could only be a RAT motor.
The identify has trapped. Currently only aged school incredibly hot rodders and nostalgia buffs continue to use the terms mouse and elephant motor. The identify rat motor, however, is still widely made use of to describe the huge block Chevy V8. Far from staying a derogatory phrase, the expression rat motor is well-liked with Chevy supporters and is utilized as a title of respect by people who create and race other brands.
And that is how the Chevy V-8 grew to become recognized as a rat motor.
