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We aren't sure exactly what motivated someone to start building a hot rod around a bathtub, but the results are certainly interesting. This unfinished project is built on an unknown frame and features a low cubic inch small block Chevy V8 (283 or 305), an automatic transmission, some shiny new headers and you guessed it, a bathtub. More »
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Awww, isn't this tiny, four-cylinder copy of the Corvette LS7.R's architecture cute? The 1,645cc V4 is destined for a new American performance bike, but only weighing 130lbs, it could be near ideal for engine swaps or kit cars. More »
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Great creative expression frequently derives from the exposé of contradiction- dogs playing poker, William Shatner, Shaq movies, etc. Nice Price or Crack Pipe appreciates a creative clash of opposites, and today's blown Bimmer is about as contradictory as they come. More »
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Most 1950s car ads are full of gibberish and nonsensical feature names, so it's understandable that we tend to tune out most of the hype and focus on the great styling when we see such ads today. However, the 1955 Chevrolet really was an important milestone for Detroit, with the first of millions of cheap, reliable small-block Chevrolet V8s and a profile that even non-car geeks can recognize today. Here's a series of what appear to be dealer promo ads for the '55- quick, in addition to "Motoramic™" and "Glide Ride™," how many trademarked features can you name from these ads? More »
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It's so easy to bag on the tried and true GM small block 350. Tech lovers will chide it for the decades old architecture. They'll point to its pushrods as a vestige of another era now that we live in a world of overhead cams and variable valve timing. When it comes to bang for the buck though, critics don't have a leg to stand on. Because the design has been around for so long, tinkers and grease monkeys have had decades to squeeze amazing power from its eight cylinder block. More »
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Many, many moons ago my band practiced next to a garage filled with speed freaks. Three dudes, who shall remain nameless, sat inside all day, every day, chain smoking, blowing lines and building stuff. One day I showed up for practice and my formerly 600 watt bass amp now pumped out 6,000 watts. Sure, it sounded like a lawnmower attacking a raccoon, but that wasn't necessarily bad for my band's sound. They also made a remote control ashtray out of zip-line toys and last I heard they were working on a "force field." Then the DEA showed up and raided the hell out of the garage and there was some sort of stabbing in Florida. But pay no mind. Even if those boys had freebased an entire '56 Harley gas tank full of Modesto's finest, they would have never been able to top this masterpiece. More »
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Let's face it: an engine that was in front-line service for 50 years, with more than ninety million built, reliable, cheap to build, and easy to modify for performance... well, do we even need to mention the small-block Chevy in this series, given that we all know it pretty much sets the Workhorse Engine standard? Sure we do! Yes, yes, we admit it had an oil-leakage problem (mostly solved by the valve-cover/rear main seal redesign of '87), but oil's cheap! So here's how we'll honor our old friend: GM made so many variations of the SBC that we now have the opportunity to name our favorite and most disappointing small-blocks on this fine Thursday afternoon. Myself, I dig the smaller-displacement powerhouses, so I'm torn between the the 385-horse L84 327 of '64 and the high-revving/zero-torque 302 of '67-'69 for my favorite; as for my least favorite, it's hard to sink lower than the late-70s/early-80s 267, equipped with suck-o-matic computer Q-Jet and general air of Malaise. And you? [Wikipedia] More »
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I enjoy shooting properly focused and exposed I-5 photos with a nice SLR, but sometimes you just get tired of stuff like sharpness and non-infinite depth-of-field in your photographs, know what I'm saying? Sure you do. That's when you reach for your homemade pinhole camera, put it in a box of small-block Chevy valves and springs, and take a 45-minute exposure. The cool thing about a pinhole camera is that you can shoot objects 1/4" from the "lens," which is fun with car parts. More »
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According to Ward's Auto, an experimental 6.2-liter, direct-injection V8 producing upward of 500 hp could be factored into the next Chevrolet Camaro equation. The engine would coincide with the Gen V version of the small-block V8, based on GM's existing all-aluminum Gen IV (L92), which powers the Cadillac Escalade, GMC Yukon Denali and Hummer H2. According to Wards, the prototype powerplant resides in the engine bay of an Escalade being tested at GM's proving grounds. One GM engineer says it's developing "well north" of 450 horsepower, a 10 percent increase in low-end torque and three percent to six percent better fuel economy. That from the new injection system, which features eight high-pressure injectors that squirt fuel directly into the side of the combustion chamber at 2,250 pounds per square inch. [Ward's Auto via Motive] More »
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The other day, Junkman mentioned his Chevy 400-powered '57 Porsche 356. Well, one thing led to another, and we invited him to send in some photos for us to share. See, when most guys claim online to have some outrageous engine/car combo ("Dude, I got a '72 Kadett with Detroit Diesel Series 60!") you take the claim with numerous grains of salt. However, when one of our commenters makes such a claim... well, we believe it, because our commenters are just that good More »
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Say you want to show the world your love for that oil-leaking, pennies-per-horsepower wonder, the Chevrolet small-block. What better way than a huge chunk of sterling silver shaped like an 8-71-blown small-block Chevy on your finger? The artist behind this fine piece of jewelry has made rings for Dale Earnhardt, so you know he's serious (though not as serious as the charges against you if you slug some Ford lover with this thing in a bar fight). More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=276328&view=rss&microfeed=true The fuel-injected 283, which could be had as a (very expensive) option in the 1957 Chevrolet, definitely ranks pretty high on the list of Coolest Small-Block Chevy Engines, what with its then-awesome one-horse-per-cube power output. Here's a science-class-style GM infomercial, complete with gargly 16mm sound and helpful diagrams, that 'splains just how the Ramjet FI system does its thing. It's like having a ghost engineer controlling the fuel-air mix! – Murilee Martin More »
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