Why Are Chevy Big Block V8's Called Rat Motors?

To talk nan rat, we must first talk nan mouse. In 1954, Ford squeaked past Chevrolet successful income by a 2% separator (1,165,942 vs. 1,143,561), a reversal of nan erstwhile twelvemonth erstwhile Chevy hit Ford by 7%. Part of nan logic FoMoCo sewage a purchaser boost was its caller Y-block V8 that made 139 horsepower successful Fords and 161 hp successful Mercuries. Chevy's Blue Flame six successful nan Corvette was nary slouch pinch its 150 hp, but nan early was clear. Make a V8 aliases get near behind. 

And so, successful 1955, Chevrolet's mini artifact debuted and shouted, "Here I travel to prevention nan day!" Sales flipped and Chevy outsold Ford by 15%. That was besides nan twelvemonth erstwhile "The Mighty Mouse Playhouse" brought Terrytoons' caped super-mouse to TV sets astir nan country. He was small, arsenic mice thin to be, but he was fundamentally Superman pinch large, information ears. At immoderate constituent successful nan precocious '50s, personification mightiness person watched a fewer episodes of Mighty Mouse beating up evildoers, past gone to nan car shed to activity connected a GM mini artifact V8. That personification whitethorn person thought, "This motor is mini and strong, truthful why not nickname it 'Mighty Mouse?'" And bam, a nickname is born. 

So, of course, erstwhile GM brought retired nan large artifact for moreover much displacement and power, that motor had to beryllium called "rat" because, as immoderate biology awesome will show you, rats look for illustration mice, only larger. Small artifact V8 equals "mouse," large artifact equals "rat." It's that simple.

But nan "Mighty Mouse" root is only a theory, though it's nan 1 espoused by Wired and Hagerty, among others. Finding references from nan era is tough, but plentifulness of commenters connected articles and forums show different stories.

Eddie J. Rodriquez/Shutterstock

Coincidences are fun. For example, successful "This is Spın̈al Tap," nan set accidentally created a Stonehenge prop 18 inches tall. This was intelligibly a insult of Black Sabbath's Born Again tour, which featured Stonehenge sets truthful ample that astir performance halls couldn't fresh them. Except, no, that Sabbath circuit happened successful 1983 and nan "Spın̈al Tap" gag was filmed successful 1982, truthful it was conscionable serendipity. Another expansive coincidence? Chrysler's 426 Hemi getting nan "elephant" nickname.

People online declare that nan Chevrolet rodent and rat motors were meant to scare distant nan big, bad Hemi elephant (I wanted to portmanteau it into Hellephant, but I can't, Dodge already did that). While it mightiness activity timeline-wise to opportunity that nan Hemi sewage nan nickname "elephant" aft being beaten by cars powered by Chevy mini blocks and large blocks, that's not wherever nan sanction came from. The Hemi sewage saddled pinch "elephant" because it's conscionable plain huge. That's it, that's nan twist, thing much complicated.

Plus, it would beryllium unusual for Chrysler to clasp nan "elephant" nickname since that would connote that nan Hemi is acrophobic of nan competition. And elephants aren't acrophobic of mice, anyway. Elephants conscionable person benignant of crappy eyesight and get startled erstwhile a rodent runs by. That tin besides hap pinch a snake, a cat, aliases a dog, truthful there's thing specifically terrifying about mice. Even "Mythbusters" had to amend nan "Elephants are frightened of mice" research aft a small woman pointed retired that nan squad utilized an albino rodent for nan test, which would beryllium uncommon successful nature, and nan overseas colour was astir apt what panicked nan pachyderm.

Another mentation says that nan large artifact "rat" nickname came earlier nan mini artifact "mouse" moniker. The Chevy "Mystery Motor" 427s had angled valves that aimed astatine nan halfway of nan cylinder bore, which made nan valves look for illustration porcupine quills. Porcupines are rodents, arsenic are rats, truthful location on nan line, "rat" stuck while "porcupine" didn't. Apparently "mouse" came later successful this type of nan story. The problem pinch relying connected nan memories of commenters is that humans tin beryllium unspeakable astatine remembering things, hence why group crossed nan net thought Nelson Mandela died successful jailhouse aliases "The Simpsons" birthed "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells."

In an effort to corroborate nan timelines pinch difficult humanities data, I scoured nan net for play references to nan "mouse" and "rat" nicknames. The earliest I recovered online was a Hot Rod article from 1970 astir nan 400 small-block titled, "Chevy's Mini-Rat." It features nan sentence, "One is based connected nan small-block 'mouse' motor, nan different connected nan 396 'rat' motor." 

Then I turned to my postulation of vintage Hot Rod, Car Craft, Road & Track, Motor Trend, and different magazines from nan early '60s. In those printed materials, nan oldest reference I recovered to nan Chevy mini artifact arsenic a "mouse" is successful nan June 1967 Hot Rod, which features a communicative connected Mickey Thompson's three-valve-per-cylinder heads for nan Chevy 350. At nan extremity of nan article, writer Bud Lang wrote, "So possibly this will beryllium nan twelvemonth erstwhile nan 'mouse' roars ... and is heard by others than conscionable nan basking rod fraternity." 

So astatine slightest we tin opportunity almost surely that nan position "rat" and "mouse" existed earlier 1967. But getting definitive answers connected erstwhile precisely they were coined whitethorn beryllium a chaotic goose chase.