From the Blue-Flame Six to the Mighty LS9,

a Salute to Corvette Engines

Check out the SLIDE SHOW at the bottom of this post!!!

If you are new to the Corvette hobby, it’s hard to realize that 57 years ago the car began as a 150-HP beauty queen, made from a new and exotic material called “fiberglass,” available in any color, so long as it was white. As soon as Duntov could get his “magic hands” on the first small-block Chevy, the party began. Dual quads showed up right away and before we knew it, in ‘57 we had a fuel-injected Corvette. Take that! European exotics! F.I. is common today, but back then, wow, that was American-style autoexotic.

Corvette engines all have a story – small-blocks, big-blocks, the new LS series engines. There are thoroughbreds in each group – outstanding versions of the basic design, and several totally unique engines, derived from the basic design. (with the exception of the ZR-1’s LT5) In the 14 years that I have been writing and illustrating my Illustrated Corvette Series for VETTE Magazine, I have done six columns specifically about a particular Corvette engine. And in ‘06 I write and illustrated a 3-part series for VETTE titled “The Power of the Corvette.”

So, I thought it would be fun to put together the below slide show of Corvette engines from the valiant Blue Flame-Six to the mighty 638-horsepower, supercharged LS9. The LS9, rated at 638-horsepower, is the most powerful production engine ever produced in Detroit. Seeing how the GM engineers have leap froged from the LS1 and the LS6 for the C5 Corvettes, to the LS2, LS7, LS3, and LS9 for the C6 Corvettes, I’m sure that the next generation GM LS-Series engine, will not disappoint. And what will power the C7 Z06 and ZR1? Now that’s something to ponder.

Having my roots in a time when GM didn’t like to officially make a big deal about their high-powered cars, a production, supercharged GM engine is still kind of amazing to me. They have come a very long way.

Included in the slide show are the following: the Blue-Flame Six, the 265 Small-Block, the Fuel-Injected 283 “Fuelie, the Fuel-Injected 327 Fuelie, the 396 L84, the 427/435 L71, the all-aluminum 427 ZL-1, the 350 small-block LT-1, the big-block 454 LS5, the fuel-injected L98, the 350 LT1, the ZR-1’s LT5, the LS1, the LS6, the LS2, the LS7, and the LS9.

Enjoy the slide show.

Scott

PS – All of the below Laser-Etched engines are available HERE.

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