Rallye Motor Moncton
Oldsmobile knew high performance by 1970 and traced its efforts to the original Rocket V-8. Introduced in 1949, the Rocket wasn’t the first V-8 or the first engine to use overhead valves, but with a similar V-8 launched almost simultaneously by Cadillac, it summoned the future.
The two General Motors divisions had developed the engines separately, but taken the same new direction. Oldsmobile’s was slightly smaller at 304 cubic inches and 135 horsepower, according to Motor’s Manual, and while Cadillac’s 331 cubic inches produced 160 horsepower, the important part was that their cylinders’ diameters were greater than their pistons’ strokes.
It meant less wear, smaller blocks and cooling systems, reduced weight and better efficiency, but the best evidence of the so-called modern V-8’s superiority is that comparable designs followed. The Chrysler hemi, for example, arrived in 1951 and the 1955 Chevrolet brought the first of a long line of its small-block V-8s. In Oldsmobile’s case, though, there was another factor.
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