How the Chevrolet Rat Motor Got Its Name

To a incredibly hot rodder or racer, a rat motor is a Chevrolet huge block V-8. Highly effective and fantastically engineered, how did this very well-revered motor arrive by the nick-identify “rat?”

From James Cagney’s famed line “…that dirty, double-crossin’ rat” to the a great deal-maligned rat finks of the fifties, calling somebody or a thing a rat is the best insult. When some thing is old, applied up and slipping aside, it is “ratty.”

So it is relatively stunning that the huge Chevy has gained the monicker of rat.

In the early 1960s, extensive ahead of the introduction of the initially rat motor, a David and Goliath confrontation was taking put on the nation’s dragstrips. The Chrysler Hemi experienced come to be the dominate power in the Top rated Gasoline and Major Gasoline classes, slowly replacing the Cadillac, Lincoln and Oldsmobile engines that beforehand managed these groups.

Whilst the Chrysler Hemi developed gobs of electric power, it was also physically much larger and heavier than other V-8s. The massive engine immediately acquired the soubriquet of Elephant motor because of to its dimension. An elephant motor with a GMC supercharger appeared huge when set up in the regular tube frame sling-shot dragster chassis.

Despite the fact that the big elephants grew to become the de-facto regular in Top rated Gas, there was one more motor that could maintain its very own against the Hemi. Numerous groups took a different tactic, deciding upon the legendary tiny-block Chevy to ability their dragsters. As generally as not, they didn’t bother with a supercharger, preferring a simple set of injectors.

On paper it was an unequal contest. The blown hemi was considerably more highly effective than the minuscule Chevy, and it seemed that the Chevy didn’t have prayer towards the Chrysler in a quarter-mile race.

Nevertheless, the tire know-how of the day was in favor of the Chevy rails.

Though the massive elephant motors created a substantial sum of horsepower, the tires of the day had been unequal to the process of offering that electricity to the track. A lot of that power went up in smoke, as the significant Chrysler rails burned the tires pretty much the whole length of the dragstip.

The tiny Chevies could burn up their tires as perfectly, but their lower electrical power permitted the tires to hook up and achieve traction whilst the massive hemis were still spinning their wheels. The blend less wheelspin, lighter overall body weight and bigger RPMs authorized the minimal Chevy run automobiles to give the elephant motor vehicles a run for their revenue.

Though the hemi groups weren’t really afraid of the very little Chevy dragsters, the modest blocks tended to make them extra than a little anxious. There was no disgrace to drop to a blown hemi device, but it was positively embarrassing to loose to an injected Chevy.

An individual remembered the fable that the only creatures elephants are afraid of are mice, and started off referring to the compact Chevy as the mouse motor. Consequently the elephant and mouse motors vied for racing honors on dragstrips in the course of the place.

The mouse-motor’s position as elephant-killer not very last very long. Tire and clutch technologies ongoing to increase, and the major elephants had been ultimately equipped to produce extra electricity to the keep track of. By the early sixties, the mouse motor could no lengthier plague the huge Chryslers in the Leading Eliminator ranks. The smaller block Chevy was still hugely popular in the altered, gasoline coupe and modified classes. While it rarely ran versus the huge elephant motors any more time, the motor was even now recognised as the mouse motor.

For the duration of that period of time, Chevrolet and Standard Motors ended up next a stringent non-racing policy. It is very well regarded that some GM by-handed the formal stance by giving parts and technical assist to racers devoid of management’s information.

Legend has it that throughout the early sixties, particular Chevy racers showed up at several race tracks with a weird new engine less than the hood. It was not a mouse motor, and it wasn’t the significant 409 V-8 that the Seaside Boys immortalized in music. It was a mysterious, all new Chevy V-8.

The thriller only lasted a limited although, as Chevrolet announced a new significant block V8 in 1965. Offered initial as a 396 cubic inch edition, the motor at some point progressed to displacements of 402, 427, 454 CI. GM even offered a monster 572 CI variation of the engine.

Following the motor was introduced, several people today however continued to refer to it as the secret motor. When the valve handles were being taken out, incredibly hot rodders started off calling it the porcupine V8, due to the fact compared with the mouse motor which experienced the valve stems lined up in a neat row, the valves in the new engine have been canted at numerous angles.

Other racers famous that whilst the engine wasn’t a correct hemisperical layout, it was not exactly a wedge head, possibly. As a result the motor attained an additional identify: the semi-hemi.

Seem by way of pics of Chevrolet race autos from the period, and you uncover several examples of automobiles with the conditions Mystery Motor or Semi Hemi painted on the hood.

For most rodders and racers, having said that, there was only a single genuine moniker for the new engine. If the small Chevy V-8 was a mouse motor, it’s even bigger, far more powerful, fiercer sibling could only be a RAT motor.

The title has caught. Currently only outdated faculty hot rodders and nostalgia buffs nevertheless use the conditions mouse and elephant motor. The identify rat motor, even so, is nevertheless extensively used to describe the major block Chevy V8. Far from getting a derogatory expression, the expression rat motor is common with Chevy enthusiasts and is utilised as a title of regard by all those who develop and race other brand names.

And that is how the Chevy V-8 turned recognized as a rat motor.