Catch this National Corvette Museum exhibit before it’s gone for good!
If you’ve never visited Bowling Green, Kentucky and the National Corvette Museum, you have the perfect excuse to hurry over there. The Corvette Powered Exhibit, which shows off the tremendous influence of ‘Vette small block V8 engines throughout the years, will be closed and disassembled in late April.
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Even if you’ve visited the museum before but didn’t get to see this exhibit, it’s worth planning another trip out there. While you might be at least partially aware of Corvette engines used in other road-going vehicles not built by GM like the 1958 Scarab, 1967 Bizzarrini Strada, 1966 Excalibur, 1969 Mangusta, and 1977 Avanti II. The list of production cars is much longer than that, but it gives you an idea of just how far the small block V8’s influence has stretched over the years.
They also have on display the 1965 Chevy Impala Impostor Chip Foose built. As you probably already know, many Ford Deuces and other hotrods pack a Chevy small block V8, much to the chagrin of the Blue Oval fan club.
Corvette engines have also been used in many race cars, a practice which is still popular today. When the Chevrolet Corvette hit motorsport circuits, it quickly became obvious it was revolutionary. The small block V8 was tough to beat, so many decided to use the small block V8 instead.
Ed Cole said back in the day, “when the 1955 Chevrolet engine was in the design stage, we were aware of its potential as the hot-rod-able V8. We wanted a high-performance V8, and we achieved our objective.”
The influence of the Corvette engine doesn’t stop just as four-wheeled vehicles. They’ve also been used in boats with tremendous effect on the water. All of this is displayed wonderfully at the National Corvette Museum, but it goes away in late April.
