Think GM Has Made a Few V8s? How About 100 Million?

WIXOM, Michigan — Only for the federal government is 100 million of anything not a lot, so that's why General Motors today held an unpretentious ceremony commemorating the construction of its 100 millionth small-block engine, which helped propel the Chevrolet division to prominence when the seminal power plant was launched in 1955. A variety of GM Powertrain luminaries were on hand for the event, including David Cole, son of visionary Chevrolet chief engineer and eventual company chairman Ed Cole, who oversaw the development of the original small-block.

The company made sure the 100-millionth small-block built today was the most titanic example available: It's the 638-horsepower, supercharged LS9 6.2-liter V8 used by the Corvette ZR1. As you would imagine, the small-block's 56-year portfolio is thick with bombastic performance variants, but GM said the LS9 is the most powerful production small-block ever built. It's the most powerful production engine of any kind GM's ever built. Period. So file that away for the next edition of Trivial Pursuit.

The commemorative 100-millionth small-block built today — it will be displayed by GM and eventually heads for its museum — was hand-assembled at GM's Performance Build Center in Wixom, Michigan, the site where all LS9 and LS7 V8s are built and where customers for the Z06 and ZR1 Corvettes can help build their cars' own engine if they so desire. The hands involved in building the commemorative engine included numerous GM employees connected with the small-block program over its nearly 60-year history — and yep, even a few media reps, including Inside Line. We tightened the LS9's crankshaft pulley bolt. Who said we're not a vital cog in the auto-industry machine?

To get an idea of the scope of 100 million engines, that's an average of 1.79 million every year since the small-block V8 was introduced in 1955. The company did some math for us, too: at about 29 inches long, that's enough small-blocks pushed end-to-end to stretch twice around the equator. And if you figure an average of 230 horsepower, the collective output of all the small-blocks GM has built amounts to 23 billion hp.

Today's small-block is nothing like the original of course, the half-century family connection being maintained almost exclusively by maintaining the first small-block's 4.4-inch spacing between bore centers — a point that was a big deal in the days of old-school production-tooling, but isn't so important with contemporary flexible manufacturing lines.

Dave Cole said at the event today that one of the primary reasons for the small-block V8's enduring appeal is the efficient minimalism of the original design. "It's easy to make things complicated," he quipped. "It's hard to make things simple."

Inside Line says: GM congratulated itself today on a glorious continuing run for an engine design that has touched just about every automotive enthusiast in some way during the past 56 years.