How Chevy Hand-Built the Small Block V8: 100 Million Engines That Powered America

Chevrolet built 100 million of the same V8. The last one was assembled by hand. In the early 1950s, Chevrolet was a sensible-six brand losing ground to Ford's V8. Engineer Ed Cole scrapped the V8 design he inherited, started clean, and had a prototype running 15 weeks after taking over the program. In 1955 Chevrolet bet the Bel Air, the pickups, and the Corvette on it. The 265 made 162 horsepower, the 1957 fuel-injected 283 became one of the first production engines to make one horsepower per cubic inch, and the 4.4 inch bore spacing drawn in 1955 still defines the small block today. This documentary follows the whole run: the 15 week sprint, the foundries and hot test cells, the racers and junkyard rebuilds, the 350 that became the most produced V8 in history, and the 100 millionth small block, a supercharged 638 horsepower Corvette engine hand-built by one technician in November 2011 and kept by GM forever. Subscribe to Assembly Era for a new story from America's toughest building era every week. This documentary uses restored archival footage and dramatized period recreation for educational storytelling. #SmallBlock #ChevyV8 #Corvette #AmericanEngineering #AssemblyEra