Hagerty Celebrates 60th Anniversary of Chevy Small Block V8

By Detroit Steel - March 23, 2015

Hagerty V8 small block

If you’re a die-hard, longstanding, can’t-live-without-it Corvette fan, chances are you put the Chevy small block V8 right up there with the “Mona Lisa.”

The Chevy small block has powered some pretty iconic Corvettes over the years, starting in 1955 with the C1. Hagerty Classic Cars recently posted a fitting video to celebrate the 60^th Anniversary of the engine, which has powered countless vehicles, not just Corvettes and other passenger cars and trucks, but also race cars and even boats.

I could wax poetic about the small block that could, but Motor Trend might have summed up its significance best in a 2011 story about the legendary engine:

Developed as a replacement for Chevrolet’s stove-bolt six-cylinder engine, the 265-cubic-inch (4.3-liter) “Turbo-Fire” engine arrived in 1955 as an option for the Bel Air and Corvette. Its compact, lightweight design featured 4.4-inch bore spacing and a thin wall casting to reduce weight. An internal oiling system, and the potential to bore and stroke it far beyond the factory limit of 400 cubic inches (Gen I engines), contributed to its long-term success.

The video posted below pays proper tribute to that success with a rebuild time lapse performed by the team at Thirlby Automotive in Traverse City, Michigan, who somehow make a very tired looking Chevy small block V8 look ready for hanging next to the “Mona Lisa.”