These Are The Smallest Displacement Production V8s Ever Made

A small engine in a beautiful car describes the Fiat 8V. Aside from its gorgeous bodywork done up by various European coach builders, the 8V was special under it’s hood as well. There, a 2.0 liter 104 hp V8 engine resided. The engine along with the car are extremely rare. Just 114 were ever made over its two year production run.

From the mid 1970s-the mid 1980s, Ferrari offered a small sports car called the 308. You probably already know that because of Magnum P.I. What you probably didn’t realize is that the 308 spawned a variant called the 208 that was powered by a smaller, 2.0 liter V8 engine. Originally the engine made 168 hp but later, a turbocharged variant was offered that upped power to 218. If you go out and try to find one to buy, good luck with your search. The 208 was more popular in Italy than anywhere else.

The Urraco was a product of it’s time. Produced during the volatile period of the late 1970s, it was born of a need for a 2+2 that used a more fuel efficient engine. While the Urraco was available with an array of engines, some Urraco’s were powered by a tiny 2.0 liter V8 engine that made just 182 hp.

A variant of the famous “Flat Head” line of Ford V8s, Ford’s 2.2 liter V8 was known as the 60 horse because it put out 60 horsepower. It made its debut in 1937 as a more fuel efficient alternative to the higher horsepower engines. While it was used in models, for the U.S. most American buyers avoided it as they preferred more power. It was popular in Europe where it was used in French and British Ford models. It was replaced in 1941 by the 226 I6 engine.

In the late 1950s, former Triumph motorcycle designer and Daimler’s newly appointed chief executive Edward Turner was tasked with designing a V8 powered sedan for the company. Along with engineer Jack Wickes, the two examined the internals of Cadillac’s V8 as a starting point. The result was a unique, 2.5 liter V8 engine that was just 30 inches long with a cylinder head design adapted from Triumph motorcycles that produced 140 hp. Over it’s decade of production it saw use in everything from Daimler sedans to Jaguar sport cars.

Tatra is a Czech manufacturer that’s one of the oldest in the world. While today’s Tatra is sort of like a Czech Isuzu in that it makes commercials vehicles, it once sold luxury cars in the mid 20th century.

From 156-1962 the company offered the 603 luxury sedan. An overhead valve hemi design, its V8 was just 2.5 liters it made just 99 hp.

Back during Jaguar’s dark days under Ford’s ownership —the company never turned a profit during its Blue Oval days— the X308 generation of the company’s flagship XJ used the smallest version of the company’s AJ V8 engine. At just 3.2 liters it was only ever used in the XJ and made 240 hp. While this engine was offered in XJs around the world, it was never used in U.S models.

While the third generation Ford Taurus received a controversial redesign that turned away buyers, they did something special with this generations SHO. Ford again partnered with Yamaha who had done the V6 on the previous SHO. Together they came up with a compact 3.4 liter V8 based on Ford’s 2.5 liter Duratech V6 that made 235 hp.

In the early 1960s, Buick developed a V8 that was used in various Buick and Oldsmobile products. It was compact at 3.5 liters, but it had problems. Buick went with an aluminum block when developing the engine to save weight, but that aluminum combined with a type of antifreeze GM was using at the time proved to be incompatible. Effluent developed in the engine which clogged the radiator (along with oil and coolant sealant problems) and production of the engine ceased in 1963.

The following year Rover, who had been searching for American made V8 engines to use in its cars, worked out a deal with GM to sell the engines tooling to Rover. The result was a long running V8 engine that was still being used in Range Rovers up until 20 years ago.

While the U.S. didn’t get this version of the E38 7 Series, it was offered elsewhere in the world. The 735i was powered by a version of BMWs M62 V8 dubbed M62B35. While it was the smallest V8 offered in the 7 Series at the time, the engine was also used in the E39 5 Series.

During Ford’s Premier Automotive Group era — in which the company owned Aston Martin, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and grouped those in with Lincoln—sharing was the name of the game. Aston Martin used Volvo keys and everyone got a piece of Jaguar’s AJV8.

Called the AJ35, it was a 3.9 liter variant used in the 11th generation Ford Thunderbird and the Lincoln LS. Initially the engine made 252 hp from 2000-2002. From 2003 until the end of its production in 2005 it made 280 hp.