Otto demonstrated the first true 4-stroke cycle in 1876 after giving up active management of Otto & Langen and going back to an 1861 design of his own. Rather than relying on the atmospheric imbalance to provide the power stroke, he instead turned the initial explosion into the power stroke...
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1937, GM released a new inline six with slight improvements in both durability and performance. This generation of six-cylinder engine is commonly known as the “Blue Flame” engine. “Blue Flame” was an advertising term used by GM in the ’30s and ’40s to describe the efficiency of GM engines...
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Chevrolet 265 V8 was first introduced in 1955 and was the first small block V8 ever produced by GM. The 265 was designed for the most part to save the Corvette from being chopped due to the fact that only 700 Corvettes were sold for the 1955 model year. People were looking...
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Before the mighty LS6 became King of the Hill, you can trace the big-block ancestry to the Mark I big-block 409 engine that adorned early 1960s Impalas. This 409 big-block never gained the popularity of the later models, but that’s where it all started...
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From its most humble beginnings, when Chevrolet produced a mere 300 '1953 Polo White, fiberglass-bodied roadsters, the ' Vette has occupied a class of American car all by itself. At the the time of its birth, there was nothing even remotely like it built on U.S. soil....
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Perhaps the most notable change from the 1953 to 1954 models was the opportunity to purchase a Corvette with a choice of different color options. In 1954, General Motors offered the Corvette to consumers with the following color combinations:...
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As lovely as the '56 Corvette was (and still is) what really ignited the legend that year was that GM began racing it. The only engine offered in the '56 Corvette was the 265-cubic-inch V8, now rated at 210 horsepower and it...
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In almost any form, the 1957 Corvette delivered uncompromising, and largely unmatched, performance. The Corvette had effectively become a street-legal sports car. As taken from an excerpt in the book CORVETTE: Sports Car Superstar: “the '57 Corvette delivered ...
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The 1958 Corvette not only looked heavier than its predecessor, but it was JAZZED UP. The car's curb weight now exceeded 3000 pounds for the first time, which was up about 200 pounds from the '57 model. Much of this was due to 9.2 inches in...
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To the credit of all involved, the 1959 Corvette was "cleaned up" considerably. For one, the chrome “suspenders” were removed from the design, providing Corvette with a more swept back look that was synonymous with speed. For another, it was decided that the faux hood louvers would be...
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