What are your favorite engine names?
What’s in a name? Is it massive torque? Immense power? Something else?
No matter what you’re into, great engine names are out there. Ford has the Windsor and Coyote, with the Essex for oddball lovers like yours truly. Chrysler has the Hemi and Hellcat, but there’s something inherently impressive about the phrase Max Wedge. Chevrolet motors aren’t necessarily as catchy in the moniker department, but the big-block rat and small-block mouse motors are nicknames worthy of mention.
And let’s not forget the (Mercury) Super Marauder V-8, (Buick) Fireball V-6, and even the (Oldsmobile) Rocket. Marketers in Detroit were working overtime in the good ol’ days, and we admire Stellantis for dubbing its new inline-six “Hurricane,” which has a whiff of decades past.
That’s just what we see stateside and in English, too, which means there are perhaps plenty more noms de “boom“ around the globe. (Multi-lingual readers—enlighten us!)
So let’s get into it, what are your all-time favorite engine names?
Napier Deltic, almost as incomprehensible as the engine itself with 18 cylinders and 3 crankshafts
When Kaiser-Willys bought the Buick V6 tooling, they called the new engine the Dauntless V6. When the oil crisis hit, GM took a Dauntless and put it in a Nova (or Apollo) and determined that it would really help bring their gas mileage CAFE down. They bought the tooling back and the rest is history.
Tri-power!! 3 dueces and a 4-speed, and a 389!! 😀 it’s all about my little GTO. 😉
Kaiser Jeep bought the rights to the Buick V6 and named it the Dauntless. An odd-fire engine that saw use for only a few years until AMC bought out Kaiser in 1970/71 and replaced it with their own engine line up. Oh, and lengthening the hood while they were at it, ruining (some would say) the iconic CJ5 look.
Whoops! Dean you beat me to it. Ha!
Panhead, Knucklehead, & Shovelhead
ram air 4. and formula 400 I’ve got one of those.
Concur, would add (HO) High Output for the 455 HO to the mix from 1971 and 1972. It had the Ram Air IV top end. Quite a nice motor with loads of torque and able to make 13 second time slips out of a low compression motor.
Nobody mentioned the Buick Wildcat engines?
My new twenty twenty two coastal limited mustang’s engine name is the tasmanian devil
1) 60’s Ford “Interceptor”
2) Hemi “Cross Ram”
Sonoramic Commando
Surprised nobody mentioned the original Buick Straight Eight from the 30’s which was the “Dynaflash”. In ’41 it was rechristened the “Fireball Eight” pre-dated the later “Fireball V-8”.
I am surprised that the Cadillac Northstar was not mentioned.
Rocket 98
Oldsmobile’s ROCKET 88