When discussing the future of the automobile there are those who are quick to spool up the doom and gloom
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00:00The V8, a power plant, a pop culture icon, an American institution, the perfect blend
00:10of speed, power, noise, vibration, heart, and soul, cast in fire and iron more than
00:20a century ago.
00:22Now digitally designed and precision milled, the V8's meteoric rise and subsequent fall
00:28from grace has been well documented, but as we push forward into a future of alternative
00:33fuels, the V8 remains unbroken and unrelenting, a golden age, not just surviving, but thriving.
00:42I love V8 engines, but it's like a Frankenstein, and when it comes to life, it's just magic.
00:48A V8 is kind of an irreverent, you can use the hand gesture of your imagination to say,
00:55I am just going to buy whatever I want, and it's very American.
01:00I mean, it represents the power of the people, right?
01:03People have been conditioned to love the V8.
01:07When you think of V8, you automatically think of American.
01:09It's that feeling of torque that you just get so addicted to.
01:12The performance, the sound, that overall visceral experience that you get.
01:16Inline six cylinders are kind of fun and cool and cute, and four cylinders are cute, but
01:21V8s are what you are when you grow up.
01:25The V8 doesn't just move machines, it moves people, driving the heart of automotive history
01:32forward, mile after mile.
01:36This is the story of that engine and those people.
01:46What's your best impression of a V8 sound?
01:49I don't want to hurt myself, I have a lot of interviews today, so I need to really take
01:56care of my throat here.
01:58Oh, I don't really make a V8 sound, I think.
02:03I don't eat beans that often, so there's not any reason to really.
02:09Not that high-pitched.
02:11I love the start-up, when you get that cold start, and it kind of over-revs, and it settles
02:16in, right?
02:17It's kind of like a...
02:21And then it's like...
02:27Or the old quadrature...
02:29But then you're waiting for that next moment, where the shift happens.
02:38When that shift happens, it gives you that pause, and then there's more.
02:47And that's, you know, 9,000 RPM, right?
02:50So, what does your favorite V8 engine sound like?
02:54Give us your best impression.
02:56Okay.
03:08That's what it sounds like.
03:10I think the reason the V8 is so prevalent is because of its versatility.
03:15It's the only engine type that really hits your senses as hard as it does.
03:19It's almost physiological when you drive a V8.
03:22I remember talking to an engineer who said that the way the human body works, the way
03:26you hear sound and frequencies, there's something about the human psyche that's just really
03:30comforting, and I just love it.
03:32It's a visceral experience.
03:33So, from the time you turn the key, you hear the sound, you feel it resonate through your
03:38body.
03:39You know, you put young kids in a V8, you know, and they might not know anything about
03:42a car, but you'll see that smile come across their face.
03:44That was me.
03:45And it's why it's been such an important part of my life.
03:47I mean, they're special.
03:50I would say the best moments of my life have been around V8 engines.
03:54It's bizarre to be emotional about this, but it actually makes me emotional because I don't
03:58think of the engine, I think of the people, whether it's hanging out with friends, watching
04:01people succeed at a racetrack.
04:03I know you guys through all this stuff.
04:05Like my friends, I know them and have relationships with them because of V8 engines, I guess I'd
04:10say.
04:11So, that's my bizarrely emotional answer to that question.
04:14To American car culture, I think the V8 means everything, from drive-ins, to camping, to
04:18towing, to speed, to motorsports, to everything.
04:23It's like up there with apple pie and hot dogs and baseball.
04:26I mean, it's part of Americana.
04:28I drove across the country before I had my license in a V8 notchback 65 Mustang, so that
04:35meant independence for me, becoming a man.
04:38I drove across the country without my parents' permission knowing about it from California
04:43to Michigan.
04:44I hand-built that V8.
04:45In fact, I lived in the back of the car for a while because I couldn't afford rent.
04:50I had to choose between redoing the motor and living in an apartment, so it meant my
04:57independence as a person.
04:58The V8 is so associated with American power and American prestige and all that kind of
05:04thing.
05:05We didn't invent the V8, but it's a bit like Kleenex.
05:09It's not a type of tissue, it's a brand name, but since so many people use it, you just
05:13call it a Kleenex.
05:14When you think of V8, you automatically think of American.
05:24We think everything is uniquely American.
05:27People think Henry Ford invented the V8.
05:28I mean, he didn't.
05:30He made it popular.
05:31I mean, America is great at bringing things down and manufacturing to a level where everybody
05:35can afford it.
05:37The first V8 engine came from a French aircraft design in 1904.
05:42An engine that soon garnered interest in Detroit, a burgeoning manufacturing center.
05:48Chevrolet would offer its first V8 in 1917, well before its more famous small block.
05:55But by 1914, it would be Cadillac that offered the first mass-produced V8 for America with
06:01its 5.1 liter L-head V8.
06:04The cars weren't all that economically viable for everyone, and yet, it pointed the way
06:09forward.
06:10Here's the Cadillac V8.
06:13Well, the engine was developed in 1914, this is in 1918.
06:17But this is all stock, and it just runs great.
06:21This has, here's my favorite feature, this is what they call a fat man wheel.
06:28There you go, like that, so if you're a fat guy.
06:34The men of girth.
06:36If you were eating in 1918, you're doing better than most people.
06:42Some of the molten iron goes to the foundry, where one of the most remarkable operations
06:46is the casting of the V8 engine block.
06:49A special technique has made it possible to build a mold with 46 cores, and to cast the
06:55entire V8 engine block, including the clutch housing, in a single piece.
07:01This achievement has made the smooth power and flexibility of the V8 engine available
07:05to millions of people.
07:07While the Cadillacs of the day were lavishly crafted, over-engineered, and eye-wateringly
07:13expensive, one man had a vision, motoring for the masses.
07:19And without him, this story could have turned out much different.
07:23We came out with a flathead in 32.
07:25That was the most important part of the V8 history, because it democratized, and when
07:29Bonnie and Clyde broke all those laws.
07:32Bonnie and Clyde, right?
07:34What did Bonnie and Clyde drive?
07:35What did Clyde Barrow write to Henry Ford, a letter, telling him, I only steal your cars
07:42because of this engine.
07:44Henry was able to make a cost-effective, easily reproduced V8 engine that was super reliable,
07:50and had all kinds of potential for hot-rodding and racing.
07:54If this exploration of V8 history doesn't include some love owed to the flathead, what
08:00are we doing here?
08:01It kind of started it.
08:02It wasn't the first, and it certainly wasn't the best, but it was mass-production-wise,
08:06putting that horsepower into people's hands, it changed the whole game.
08:08The flathead Ford V8 is the reason all V8s are popular from that day until now.
08:15Interesting.
08:16Because that created the American hot-rodder mentality, that to get more power I had to
08:21have eight cylinders, and I swear, that's the moment that hot-rodding began.
08:27Henry Ford may have brought the V8 to the masses, but it wasn't until after the Second
08:32World War that the idea of taking them apart and optimizing them came into the mainstream.
08:38It all began with a band of guys from Southern California.
08:42One of them is Ed Iskanderian.
08:45Well, of course, at first we were fascinated by the flathead Ford V8 in 1932, and it gradually
08:58got improved a little bit in later years.
09:01We looked at what the other guys had built.
09:04We'd get ideas to build a certain kind of car of our own.
09:09The right guy at the right time can make all the difference.
09:13The Ford flathead V8 came along as Ed Iskanderian reached adulthood.
09:19After returning from the Second World War, Isky got to work, soaking up knowledge, building
09:24engines and racing flathead V8s.
09:26We had the Bureaux Dry Lake nearby, a hundred miles from Los Angeles, out in the desert.
09:33That was our place to try out the cars.
09:36His biggest contribution?
09:39Becoming the father, the cam father of the aftermarket camshaft.
09:45It was the holy grail of V8 power.
09:49This coincided with the advent of more powerful and more efficient overhead valve V8s, engines
09:55Isky was all too happy to tinker with.
09:59That act would spawn an industry in the form of the trade body known as SEMA, and Iskanderian
10:05would be its first president.
10:07We went from, we just want horsepower and we're a small niche group of hot rodders,
10:12into wow, the big three are marketing performance and horsepower to me, and that's all V8s.
10:18Pop culture too.
10:19In the 60s, the Beach Boys were singing about the stuff, right?
10:23It was a mainstream, movies were Dragstrip Girl, you know, Two Lane Blacktop, all this
10:29stuff.
10:30All of their narrators had a song called SS396.
10:32It was a song about an engine.
10:34It was a porcupine V8.
10:35I mean, they were singing about-
10:36She's real fine, my-
10:37409.
10:38I mean, just, and again, we sound like we are decrepit and are about to be buried with
10:42an excavator because we're talking about these old songs about engines, but the reality is,
10:46it was the popular culture.
10:48Through the 50s and 60s, American V8s ruled the road.
10:53And here is Chevrolet's ramjet fuel injection.
10:57A dynamic engineering advance made possible by-
11:02Whether it was drag racing for pink slips, competing for speed records on the Salt Flats,
11:07rubbing rims on the dirt tracks and ovals of the American racing scene, and even in
11:12the movies.
11:23Nevertheless, as the culture shift of the 70s gained traction, the V8 began to fall
11:28in favor.
11:30Seen as uneconomical, old-fashioned and expensive, with the world in the midst of a recession
11:36and a global oil crisis, manufacturers began turning to smaller, more economical engines.
11:43The V8, it would seem, was doomed.
11:46Its endearing character, however, would power the passion of engineers who had worked diligently
11:51over the decades to vault the V8 to levels of efficiency only previously dreamed of.
11:58I'm old enough to remember when emissions requirements came in and completely neutered
12:01V8s to where they were producing 100 and some horsepower.
12:05The smog requirements, technically, we were incapable of dealing with.
12:10Compression ratios went down and the power levels plummeted and the engines were pretty
12:13boring and didn't make a lot of power.
12:16And then all of a sudden, it just surged back up in the 90s.
12:19We've been incredibly fortunate to have been able to ride this regulatory and emissions
12:25rollout while still improving the durability, improving the fuel economy, improving emissions,
12:31all while giving customers what they really want, which is more performance.
12:35I think these things ebb and flow.
12:39I think the V8 has done absolutely nothing.
12:42What's amazing about that propulsion system is that you look at over the arc of time,
12:49every step has made it better.
12:51I often get asked the question, what's my favorite?
12:54What's the next one?
12:55The world began to recover and emerge from the economic hardship of the 1970s and into
13:04the heady days of the 1980s.
13:06The economy bounced back and grew to new highs.
13:09People were earning better than ever and wanted to show it.
13:13An old, old friend, the V8, once shunned by the masses, suddenly found favor.
13:20Since then, it has been on a meteoric rise, which brings us to today.
13:27We live in a golden age, honestly, right now.
13:30It's remarkable technology and the engineering team that works on that that deserves the
13:36credit for accomplishing what, from a distance, looks practically impossible.
13:41The current V8s have more specific output and power density than anything that was available
13:47in the muscle car area.
13:48It is the heyday.
13:49I think the future is even brighter with things like electrification.
13:53As you hybridize V8s and you bring electric turbocharging to reduce turbo lag to V8s,
13:58you can make untold amounts of power while keeping the V8 reliable and clean.
14:02The HEMI, the loss of the Hellcat, that is a giant blow.
14:07That said, I wouldn't count Dodge out.
14:09The new Charger EV, you can remove the batteries and a V8 with a rear-wheel drive transmission
14:16bolts into the frame.
14:18My design.
14:19And now, it's time to talk about the elephant in the room, the HEMI, known to devotees as
14:27simply the elephant.
14:29The early Chrysler HEMIs would quickly gain status.
14:33One in particular, the Firepower HEMI, would be the first to achieve one horsepower per
14:38cubic inch, but it would all end in 1958.
14:44As the years passed, other V8s joined the fray, but racers doggedly stayed with the
14:50HEMI.
14:51There seemed to be no limit to how much punishment they could take.
14:55And then it happened, the second coming of the HEMI in 1964.
15:00The elephant was back, and it was bigger and angrier.
15:04By 1966, the street HEMI put out 425 horsepower.
15:10It was the regular Joe's moonshot, but like Apollo, the HEMI's days were numbered.
15:16By the end of 1971, the show was over.
15:20Or was it?
15:23Three decades later, the ground would rumble once again.
15:30The HEMI was back.
15:32Power would swell to staggering levels, culminating in the supercharged Hellcat HEMI, its most
15:38potent version, the Demon 170, puts out 1,025 horsepower.
15:44It does this on E85 fuel, made mostly from corn.
15:50That was in 2023.
15:54The HEMI's effect on the V8 landscape, both in terms of production cars and in the aftermarket,
16:00cannot be overstated.
16:02Always a step ahead of the competition, the third-generation HEMI consistently punched
16:06a well over its weight, an engine that today still powers select truck models.
16:12Massively powerful, riotously entertaining, and striking fear with its telltale blower
16:18whine, the eminently affordable Dodge Hellcat seemed to say, light them up and let it eat.
16:26While Ford and Chevrolet continue the good fight, we wonder, could the HEMI return?
16:31After all, it disappeared twice before, only to return with a vengeance.
16:40Ford is about to launch the Mustang GTD, which has sort of their ultimate expression of the
16:45V8.
16:46It takes their V8 to a whole other level in terms of what's available for the street.
16:50They're taking racing technology, putting it in a Mustang that's a Mustang almost only
16:55in name.
16:56It's a race car really.
16:57And it's not just designed for straight-line performance.
17:00It's designed to be the ultimate handling Mustang with incredible racetrack capability.
17:07It's a car that I have had in my head for a couple decades.
17:11We wanted to have a vehicle that we could actually bring technology that's not legal
17:16in racing to the street.
17:18You know, like that new Mustang GTD with that rear window where you watch the suspension
17:22work.
17:23When you're driving, hey, look at that, bang!
17:28You're seeing the rear suspension in your rear-view mirror.
17:30Hilarious.
17:31But, you know, I argue one of those.
17:33It's this incredible American icon, the Ford Mustang, transformed into a wild race vehicle.
17:46The next amazing car that I could think of on the horizon is the Corvette ZR1.
17:51The traditional American V8, it probably revs to maybe 6,500 RPM.
17:56It's a very deep-sounding engine with a ton of torque.
17:59With the Corvette Z06 and the new ZR1, they're leaning into flat-plane crankshafts and the
18:06high-RPM experience that delivers.
18:09First of all, the ZR1's engine is the most powerful V8 ever put into a production sports
18:14car with a volume manufacturer.
18:171,064 horsepower, 5.5 liter, 8,000 RPM redline, twin turbo, just a technical marvel.
18:25People are going to be shocked when they think it's going to be this fire-breathing monster.
18:28But it's no, it's a well-rounded Corvette.
18:31It's just taken to the nth degree, just crazy over-the-top, overwhelming performance capability.
18:37Ford's 7.3 liter Godzilla is another great engine.
18:42It's one that's extremely versatile.
18:43It's one that's used in commercial applications, truck applications, in the super-duty truck.
18:47A lot of torque, a lot of power, but the exciting thing is Ford is offering it as a crate engine.
18:52And now people are taking that and putting it in classic Mustangs or Fox-body Mustangs,
18:56Cobra, kit cars, or anything else under the sun.
18:59Taking a 7.3 liter V8 and putting in something else is sort of one of our God-given rights.
19:04The V8 is such an institution for American automakers especially.
19:08They've got to have a V8 in the lineup as long as they're making combustion engines.
19:16With new high-performance V8 offerings like GTD and ZR1, the future of the V8 seems secure.
19:23But what comes next?
19:25What's being done to ensure that the V8 lives on forever?
19:28Every aspect of the IC engine is under scrutiny.
19:32In a V8, friction, waste heat, and entropy consume as much as 80% of the energy stored
19:39in gasoline.
19:40In light of advancements in electric vehicles, this is a number which must be improved upon.
19:46And when it comes to the efficiency of V8 engines, we've only just begun to scratch the surface.
19:53When we think about a V8 engine or an engine in period, the last couple of years have been
19:57a rough year for the internal combustion engine.
20:00And I think largely because there's a misconception that these products are low-tech.
20:04As a matter of fact, there's a significant amount of technology that goes into giving
20:08you a 400 horsepower V8 engine that'll last 200,000 plus miles.
20:13We do a lot of really, really cutting-edge stuff in this building.
20:16The tolerancing that we're building these engines to, to allow for the longevity and
20:19the quality of the product, are more akin to aircraft tolerances than engine tolerances
20:24of the past.
20:25Just behind me is one of our last air-proofing stations that's fundamental to our process
20:34here at Winter Engine Plant.
20:36The sound that you can hear is actually, you know, the start to the heartbeat of our engine.
20:40So essentially what we're doing is we're replicating the combustion and the thermocycling of an
20:45engine in a vehicle, however, we're not using any fuel.
20:48At this point, we're up to about 200 parameters that we monitor, and they all contribute to
20:53data being, you know, recorded, and we're able to use that data again to predict and
20:58understand current quality, as well as whether or not there is a shift in our data suggesting
21:04that we should be optimizing our process elsewhere.
21:08We make about 1,000 engines a day here in this, in this plant.
21:12We also make about 1,000 engines at Essex Engine Plant, so between and through the city
21:16produces about 2,000 V8s per port every single day.
21:20Yeah, I'd say that the V8 market is still really strong.
21:25Our manufacturers are still developing those products, but we are seeing, obviously, government
21:29intervention.
21:30I mean, we are seeing in the V8 world, hydrogen started to come into play, there's synthetic
21:36fuels, there's biofuels, there's all these different technologies that continue to be
21:40innovated.
21:41That's what America was built on, innovation.
21:43And we should allow Americans, number one, to continue to innovate and look for new ways
21:48to make sure that, from an environmental standpoint, we're clean, but innovation should prosper.
21:58I'm Norris Marshall.
21:59This is Blueprint Engines, and we're a performance crate engine manufacturer.
22:03We're still seeing products developed for V8 engines that have been around for 20 and
22:0830 years.
22:09I mean, I can go to a Blueprint Engines, and they're building every part brand new now.
22:15You know, it used to be the thought that you can't make horsepower anymore and still be
22:18emissions legal.
22:19Well, we've disproved that.
22:21Again, innovation takes hold.
22:24Our manufacturers see the challenge.
22:26They see the challenge that carbon EPA put in front of them, and they meet and exceed
22:30that challenge.
22:31To see guys like Blueprint Engines, who are going through that process, and who are able
22:35to make horsepower emissions legal is really cool to see.
22:40I think it must be really challenging for the OEM manufacturers to figure out what they
22:44can make and sell.
22:46So currently, there's some regulations that would cause OEMs, in order to meet them, they
22:52can't really make a lot of V8s, they've got to make a lot of EVs.
22:55We're looking at an immediate future where there's no V8 in the Dodge lineup, and this
22:59is a brand that built its entire identity on loud, powerful, crazy V8 engines.
23:08And the fact that they don't have a lineup of four-cylinder vehicles and hybrids and
23:13EVs is causing them to get rid of this iconic V8 engine.
23:19We think the marketplace wants that Hemi engine.
23:23So we have worked with some people at Stellantis to establish a supply chain of components
23:29so that we can assemble that engine and sell it into the aftermarket.
23:34I also think there's a decent chance that they'll come back, the pendulum will swing
23:38the other way, and they will have a V8 in the lineup again.
23:42As we've all seen, every single global OEM over the last, as we sit here in 2024, the
23:47last 12 months, every single one of them has gone, well, I know we said we're going to
23:52be EV by 2030, but, I mean, yeah, it's, maybe it's going to be, right.
23:58The other man behind the curtain is our new V8 engine plan.
24:01Yeah.
24:02Ta-da!
24:03So, and it's got an alternator on it, so it's kind of a, it generates electricity, but no,
24:07you know, as bleak as things can look on a headline at times, it really isn't as bad
24:11as you think it is.
24:12Sky isn't falling, man.
24:13It isn't.
24:14The push-pull of regulation and reality will rumble on, while Fortune 500s and grease-knuckled
24:21entrepreneurs alike continue to work on their version of the future V8.
24:26One such maverick is Mike Copeland.
24:29Okay, so the basic engine is the same as a 2014 CTS-V, so it's a LSA cylinder heads.
24:38We use the LS3 block.
24:41By taming that most abundant of substances, hydrogen, could he be the one who saves the
24:47future of the V8?
24:49It was so funny when we built this and started taking it places and showing it off.
24:55Nobody believed it was real.
24:57Nobody believed that it was really on hydrogen.
25:01We raced it at Optima.
25:02We had more than 100 people crawl underneath the truck looking at, is it, does it have
25:08a gas tank somewhere?
25:09There's no way they're really running on that tank of hydrogen in the back, but it is.
25:17The number one question people ask all the time is, how does it sound?
25:21What does it sound like?
25:22When you drive it, does it sound like a gasoline car or does it not?
25:28In our case, if I didn't tell you it was hydrogen, you just got in it and you didn't see the
25:33tank, you wouldn't know that it runs on hydrogen.
25:37So it's amazing how much it is, just like a gasoline vehicle.
25:44The performance is really close to the same.
25:47The sound is the same.
25:50The acceleration is good, it's the same basically.
25:53The best part is that supercharger whine.
26:05I think we're going to see a little resurgence of V8s.
26:09I know Ford and GM are very committed to V8s yet.
26:12They keep improving the technology and making the engines more efficient and cleaner.
26:18There's just like an unlimited amount of that that's possible.
26:21And then if you start talking about changing the fuel, it's a whole new ballgame.
26:25You can change to renewables, you can change to hydrogen.
26:28All those things are being worked on.
26:29So I think the death of the V8 is maybe a little overstated.
26:33There's a lot of technology still that we can apply that we haven't done yet.
26:36There's opportunities with materials.
26:39We are far, far from done, not only producing V8s, but producing better, more powerful,
26:45more efficient V8s in the future.
26:46I mean, you spend 150 years perfecting one technology.
26:51It seems silly to throw it all away and replace it with something else when you can modify.
26:56Because nobody doesn't like the engine, you just don't like the fuel it uses.
27:00Does the V8 have an expiration date?
27:03Everything does.
27:05I don't think in our lifetime.
27:07I think I'm going to see it all the way, even if it's just in my garage, until the end.
27:12You're asking me if the V8 has an expiration date.
27:14I'm here at the end of my career.
27:17I don't know what's going to happen.
27:19It's almost like saying, you know, does the advent of the automobile mean there'll never
27:24be horses again?
27:26You know, yes, it changes the environment.
27:29Things may look different in the future.
27:31I think there'll always be a market for V8s.
27:35And look, Jim Farley from Ford recently was like, we will build V8 engines until, you
27:39know, like Charlton Heston holding the rifle, take it out of my cold, dead hands.
27:43You know, Farley talked about that.
27:44He's an enthusiast racer.
27:46We're going to make a V8 as long as we can, because that's what Mr. Ford will want us
27:50to do.
27:51I fully expect that my 14-year-old son, who is looking at some of these old cars now,
27:57is going to be able to buy a car in 30, 40 years, and it's going to have a V8.
28:02When you see the manufacturers that, you know, have taken the V8 to this pinnacle, you know,
28:07they keep pushing.
28:08And I have a belief that the V8, because of its configuration, because it works so well,
28:14we're going to see it go on to be an alternative to all these other engines and probably the
28:18go-to engine for years to come.
28:22The technical challenges are known.
28:26The engineering is ongoing.
28:28Strategies like variable valve timing, displacement on demand, and direct injection are squeezing
28:35more power from a gallon of gas.
28:37And alternative fuels like ethanol, natural gas, and hydrogen are clean and renewable.
28:43And yet, gasoline will provide an all-important bridge to a future with more choices.
28:49The V8 built America, but can our love affair with it survive?
28:54Can EVs replace the visceral experience of a living, breathing V8?
28:59The answer lies with the new generation.
29:02One thing's for sure, until then, the newest breed of V8s will march into the future, delivering
29:08ever more power and greater efficiency.
29:12You can count on that.
29:24I've got a story to tell you about that.
29:27She's got a hair-trigger temper, and I call her Maxine.
29:30You know she's got some power on tap.
29:33Got my head, she's playing on the radio.
29:36Loafing right along till the night is through.
29:39Heading up the range, gonna check out a show.
29:42You won't think I'd agree, because no.
29:54We've got a tough, fast train to swerve.
29:59It's a rougher when the pedal goes down.
30:01You'd better stay put.