Originally Posted By: supton
Originally Posted By: eyeofthetiger
Originally Posted By: Traction
The original small block Chevy V8 engine was introduced in 1955. It was 265 cubic inches, which is 4.3 liters.
But nobody talked in liters back then. When did all this liter nonsense start, anyway?
Probably from the very beginning--I mean, Europe has deep ties with metric, so I'd have expected their engines to always have been in liters.
Well, cc's anyhow, given their taxes.
Look at Renaults...8, 10, 12, 16...engine size in decilitres.
UK they had the "standard 8"...8 taxable horsepower...which was basically bore size squared times a constant that was supposed to be based on BMEP and stroke and RPM...when the calculation was developed, it was felt that max piston speed could not be exceeded into the future, thus RPMxstroke=constant was the basis for the taxable HP.
As things got better, strokes and RPM increased markedly, meaning that the engines could do well better than their "taxable" hp...thus the small bore long stroke.