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00:00It's a funny old world we live in, isn't it?
00:03A world of personal likes and dislikes, of loves and hates.
00:07I reckon, you know, a sharp suit with a four-button cuff is something that should be aspired to,
00:12whereas if you ever catch me reading Hello, you know it's time to get the men in the white suits.
00:20However, there is one thing about which there is no such controversy.
00:24A thing that inspires affection, admiration and, dare I say it, love, wherever it goes.
00:41I'm talking as if you didn't know about the V8.
00:51Never in the history of engineering has a petrol engine been so perfect and yet so politically incorrect.
00:58It's big, powerful, lazy, horribly uneconomical,
01:01and yet one thrum of the exhaust can wring a smile out of even the staunchest environmentalist.
01:07To quote an engineering phrase, the V8 is the absolute business.
01:14Driving a car with a big, fruity V8 is an experience that should not be missed by anyone, really.
01:23Just to know how perfect driving can be.
01:27But when the V8 was created back in 1915, it wasn't designed for the B roads of Britain.
01:32It was built for a much grander landscape, where people talk in loud voices,
01:36wear tartan shirts and sing country songs.
01:39And, of course, I'm talking about Belgium.
01:43The British very much favoured a four-cylinder engine.
01:46The Germans built a lot of very natty six-cylinder engines.
01:49However, the V8 engine was very much an American idea.
01:54Of course, other people built V8 engines.
01:55But what makes it uniquely American is that America is the only place where you could get
02:00what is basically a Ford Granada off the production line with a V8 fitted.
02:05Although, um, it didn't do their beer any good, did it?
02:09The V8 is as much an American tradition as enjoying a tin of beer on your porch,
02:14albeit a rather watery tin of beer.
02:16That's where it was born and raised, and that's where it is most at home.
02:25It's like a scorn in this country.
02:27Do you see anything about T-Shop?
02:30I'm dying of thirst.
02:41We all know what it's like to drive in a small car at speed for any kind of distance.
02:46It's absolutely ghastly.
02:48But what if your Auntie Mary lives 2,000 miles away?
02:52Then it's just positively unbearable.
03:10Allow me to show you why.
03:20The problem's not just with the size of the engine,
03:23but with the way the pistons and cylinders are laid out.
03:27OK, pay attention.
03:29Here's one I had prepared earlier.
03:33Johnny air intake.
03:36Johnny camshaft bolt coming.
03:39And here we are.
03:42Sandra cylinder head.
03:43And there you have it.
03:45The source of all the trouble.
03:47There's your pistons.
03:48One, two, three, four.
03:50They shoot up and down in there.
03:52A little explosion happens above them and shoots them down.
03:54Then they shoot back up again.
03:56It's very, very clever, but it does produce a lot of vibration.
04:00It has to, even if they're balanced.
04:03There's a lot of up and down energy.
04:05Energy that goes up and down and up and down and up and down.
04:07And this is the problem with a little up and down engine or even a big up and down engine.
04:15Hmm.
04:16Oh, the castro.
04:16It is very much you.
04:18It's you, I think, you'll find.
04:26If you want to get rid of the vibration, you're going to have to get the pistons to do something
04:30else.
04:40Oh, the car manufacturer that came up with the solution has been synonymous with luxury ever since.
04:55Back in the early 1900s, Cadillac were producing relatively small cars, but they were particularly interested in the luxury end
05:03of the market.
05:05And while other manufacturers were extolling the virtues of soft springing, etc., Cadillac realised that real smoothness and real luxury
05:12had to start under the bonnet.
05:15And so, in 1914, a Scottish engineer at Cadillac called McCall White set out to design a V8 engine.
05:23Hi.
05:24I need four mini-rolls and I need a stack of those wee chocolate sticks and a large coffee, please,
05:33with everything in it, Milton sugar.
05:35Okay.
05:36That sounds like a very strange order.
05:37We haven't had one of those for a while.
05:39I'm a very strange person.
05:41You may have one of these at home.
05:43Let's say this is your ordinary engine, where the big ends of endless 56's jokes lurk, which has got four
05:50cylinders and therefore four pistons in line.
05:56So-called, somewhat predictably, because they're in a line, which is why little engines, little four cylinders, are usually very
06:03rumbly.
06:03However, the clever boys at Cadillac came up with another idea, which was, let's have eight pistons, eight cylinders, and
06:15lay them out like this.
06:17And this is your, this is, this is, this is much more like what a V8 looks like, it forms
06:21a V.
06:26It's all really about balance.
06:27The two banks of pistons.
06:30The two banks of pistons balance each other going up and down, but also side to side.
06:34That's why this engine goes zing, zing, zing, and this engine goes zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing.
06:57Now, with the Ford, which is where the V8 story really begins.
07:03Well, we find out.
07:07During the Great Depression in the 30s, things were pretty bleak for the American automobile industry.
07:12No manufacturer could afford to design fancy new body styles, and the public were far too wary to spend money
07:18on such frivolities anyway.
07:20So good old Henry Ford focused his attention on building what he knew would represent true value for money in
07:26a car, an affordable cast-iron V8 engine, the Ford Flathead.
07:33And this is what they come up with.
07:35Well, not this precise engine, of course.
07:38Now, here you are.
07:39This is your, your flat head.
07:42The head, of course, is just the top of the engine.
07:44It's the bit that stops the pistons from flying out the top.
07:53The pistons are laid out in a V. You can almost see it there.
07:58Up there, and up there.
08:00In any other country, you'd have to pay an awful lot of money for this.
08:03You'd have to be very rich.
08:05Oh, yeah.
08:07But, I mean, that was Henry Ford's genius, who was making good, reliable engineering affordable to everybody.
08:12The Edinburgh socket set.
08:16It may not look like much, but this lump of iron was to change motoring history.
08:21Here we go.
08:23Come on.
08:24Oh, yeah, beauty.
08:27This is the 1932 Ford Roadster.
08:30Aimed at the younger market, slightly sporty, but still a cheap and cheerful little car.
08:42But, for the first time, they put a brand spanking new engine in it.
08:48And, believe me, no Ford Fiesta ever sounded like this.
09:10In its day, it was one of the least expensive cars you could buy.
09:14860 bucks, but for an extra 50 bucks, you could have what this has got, which is a V8.
09:19Now, there'd been V8s before, but always in cars like Cadillacs, really expensive Cadillacs.
09:24But this was the first time they ever put a really smooth, complicated, utterly reliable, powerful engine in a bog
09:31-standard car.
09:32Needless to say, of course, these sold like hot tamales.
09:41Ford's new V8 wasn't just smoother than the old Ford.
09:45Because it had twice the number of cylinders, the engine is only working half as hard, making it much less
09:50stressed and therefore less likely to break down.
09:52And there was another feature of the engine that was immediately apparent.
09:56It was fast.
10:00With this much smoothness and power, it was absolutely inevitable that it would be very attractive to the criminal classes.
10:07And Bonnie and Clyde had one of these.
10:09And so did John Dillinger, public enemy number one.
10:13John Dillinger actually had the brass neck to write to Henry Ford and congratulate him on his engine.
10:19And I could see why.
10:21In fact, I'm in half a mind to go and rob a bank myself.
10:27Ford's little V8 captured the imagination of America.
10:30It allowed people to travel in comfort and style, no matter what their position in life.
10:35But unwittingly, it also spawned a whole new motoring culture.
10:38Heart-radding.
10:49This car's a good example of what you do to a flathead motor.
10:53One of the first things that they learned was to put one or two more carburetors on, which gets a
10:58lot more fuel in.
10:59And they started to manufacture ahead with fins for cooling.
11:03But then they found that the exhaust would back up some.
11:05So they designed these good headers that you see here.
11:09And it evolved into quite a powerful engine.
11:13That venerable little V8 has kicked out a lot of power and still does.
11:20And with that extra horsepower under the bonnet, lowered suspension and plenty of chrome, it became the engine of choice
11:26for the young American male.
11:39It was less than a decade old, and already the V8 was a cultural icon.
11:44Now that's what I call an engine.
11:47If you wanted to go faster Britain, across the Atlantic there, which conveniently is behind me,
11:53you would have maybe an Austin 12, an Austin 10.
11:57Unless you had enough cash to go out and buy yourself a Lagonda or a Bentley or a Fraser Nash
12:00or something,
12:01you were stuck with going up and down the A35 at 40 miles an hour flat out.
12:05But here, it was a different story.
12:10It is a lot of cleaning up. It's a nightmare.
12:17In the 50s, the government-funded freeway system started to spread across the United States,
12:22allowing motorists to travel for vast distances at high speeds.
12:25The system could have been designed with the V8 in mind.
12:29However, now people's needs changed from cast-iron reliability to something slightly more flashy.
12:35And it was here that Ford's big rival entered the story.
12:40This is a 1955 Chevrolet.
12:43This was a car that America very much took to their hearts.
12:47They bought one million of them in the first year alone,
12:50since which time they have produced 65 million small-block Chevy engines.
12:57The Chevy small-block V8 engine was so popular,
13:00it outsold the VW Beetle car three times over.
13:04It still had all the smoothness of the old Ford flathead,
13:07but with advances in engineering, such as overhead valves,
13:10it was smaller, lighter and much more powerful.
13:13And in a country that was developing rapidly,
13:16that power was to find its way into all sorts of messy situations.
13:21Get the chainsaw.
13:30When the settlers came here,
13:32they cleared all the land with a couple of mules and ropes.
13:36It's much the same now, but the mules said it's slightly different.
13:39All right, Steve.
13:52The Chevy V8 wasn't just good for pulling chicks.
13:55With the right tyres and tow-bar,
13:57the engine became standard issue for would-be pioneers all over the States.
14:01And there was another side to the old V8
14:03that the Americans were to latch onto with even greater enthusiasm.
14:07The few bits bolted on could turn into a very different beast altogether.
14:12Whoa.
14:14Lordy, lordy.
14:16That is fantastic.
14:18This is your small-block.
14:19Hasn't changed a whole lot in the last 50 years.
14:22It's pretty basic, the way that it came out of the factory.
14:25We got 500 horsepower here, 486 pounds of torque.
14:29Do you think I could hear the engine without my helmet on,
14:31just to hear what its eyes are like?
14:32Yeah, you sure can.
14:33Let's start it up.
14:34All right.
14:43All right.
14:44Put your clutch in.
14:46Into first gear.
14:47There you go.
14:48Perfect.
14:49All right.
14:49Go ahead and step into high gear.
14:52Okay.
14:53Get a high on the back.
14:57Lift.
14:58You can be on the brake.
14:59Coming down in.
15:00Get a little bit lower that time.
15:01This is stock car racing, and it's the nearest I've ever been to being stuck in a multi-story
15:07car park with the accelerator jammed full on.
15:09It couldn't be further from the high tech of Formula One.
15:12It's cheap, cheerful, loud and smelly.
15:14And that's just my jammed.
15:16Back on the drum.
15:18Left.
15:19Apply the brake.
15:20Jump a down solo.
15:21Robbie, I'm going to get the fan out.
15:26Great job, Robbie.
15:27Great job.
15:29Okay.
15:29Keep it in the groove so we don't pick up any trash on our tires.
15:33Use your bike to stop.
15:34Don't hit anybody.
15:36Good job.
15:38Good job.
15:39Oh, boy.
15:40Everybody that's a big race fan, it's Ford versus Chevy, but it's the V8.
15:44That's the power that drives it, and that's the thing that all the fans get so emotional
15:49about is it's the V8 engine.
15:51It's American way of life.
16:00It's American way of life.
16:17And the M25 went completely mad.
16:21Stock car racing started in the US during Prohibition when bootleg whiskey runners would practice
16:28getting away from the police.
16:29Not much has changed, except now it's the cars that run on alcohol.
16:33With races lasting up to three hours at speeds of 160 miles an hour,
16:38it's as much about endurance as outright speed.
16:40But with their simple design and bulletproof construction,
16:43those big V8s were made for it.
16:48Every single one's got the same engine,
16:50and that's not because of any standardisation.
16:52It's because that's the best motor for the job.
16:57I'd better go and get myself an unattractive nylon baseball cap,
17:00or I'll feel completely left out.
17:12I want you to have a look around in here, Robbie. You like engines?
17:15By the late 50s, the V8 was everywhere.
17:18With fuel prices at an all-time low, the engine went from strength to strength.
17:23Americans relied on the shape, sound and simplicity of the V8,
17:26and when their constitution was threatened, they knew where to turn.
17:34During the Cold War, Florida built a number of sirens on the roofs of tall buildings
17:38to warn the public when the Communist missiles were coming.
17:42And what reliable, dependable, all-American device would they use to power these sirens?
17:501952, 180-horsepower Chrysler Hemi engine.
17:55So they built these devices to place on the buildings.
17:58This thing turns. It's on a turntable. Look at this.
18:01Oh, right. Yeah, yeah.
18:02And as the engine runs through this intricate pulleys and system,
18:06it turns it on this turntable,
18:08and this siren will shoot this sound out the back of it through the horns.
18:13It goes about 25 miles.
18:16Jesus.
18:16And this was to warn people that there was an impending nuclear attack and to take cover.
18:23And this particular one runs on propane gas, propane gas bottle here.
18:28Yum, yum.
18:29I tell you what, I think we can't do it on propane gas.
18:32Yeah.
18:32That's too complicated.
18:33But, you know, we might hook this thing up with a gasoline carburetor.
18:36Yeah.
18:36And put a bucket of gas down there and some batteries and some wires
18:39and see what we can do with it.
18:41Well, let's do it.
18:42Okay.
18:42It's a testament to how well-built this engine is,
18:45that we could even attempt this.
18:47The engine had been sitting on a roof, unused for ten years,
18:51covered in salt spray,
18:52and then lay at the back of a garage for another ten.
18:55Add to that the fact it has never run in gasoline.
18:58Let's just say I wouldn't try it with a two-strong.
19:00Let me set this battery right in here.
19:03It won't be in the way of anything.
19:05So you reckon most of this, the high-pension circuit's probably all right still, isn't it?
19:11Looks healthy?
19:12Yeah.
19:12Pull that dipstick out and see what that looks like.
19:14Have you got a rack somewhere?
19:16Let's just give it a little drink right here.
19:22Okay.
19:23A teaspoonful.
19:25Turn it over and I'll flip on the ignition as it's turning over.
19:28I'll crank it and you put the power on.
19:28Okay.
19:31Contact!
19:44Fantastic tick-over for an engine that's not run for so long, isn't it?
19:50Yeah.
19:56Okay.
20:13Well, there's no one.
20:15Yeah, okay.
20:16If it was 나, I guess it was very interesting.
20:17It was really effective, dude.
20:17Yeah, I guess.
20:17If you pinched the plane that is Queensland.
20:19And certainly, it was lovely.
20:21Did you kill somebody,
20:36In the 1970s, everything began to go horribly wrong for the American V8.
20:41Everything that stood for a big, under-stressed engine, a gas guzzler, a smooth engine,
20:47became hideously unfastable.
20:49First of all, in California, they introduced strict emission controls on all engines.
20:54Then, in 1974, the price of raw crude quadrupled overnight.
20:59And then, thirdly, the government introduced a tax on all engines that couldn't do 20 miles to the gallon or
21:04more.
21:04It was a nightmare.
21:09So, what did Detroit do in their wisdom?
21:12Well, they built this.
21:14The 1972 Cadillac El Dorado.
21:17500 cubic inches, that's 8.2 litres.
21:21Enough displacement for nine Morris miners.
21:24It was the politics of, frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
21:51There's no doubt that the V8 became an American icon,
21:54because it suits their roads, their character, their way of life, and their fuel prices.
21:59It's difficult to argue for an engine that does eight miles to the gallon in the UK, or anywhere.
22:05But there is something else that the V8 represents that is unique to the American way of life.
22:09It is the certainty that if something is good, then it should be available to everyone,
22:13whether you're a lawyer or a linesman.
22:15And if that sounds like commie talk, then it's worth remembering that Che Guevara drove a Chevy.
22:21V8, of course.
22:23Come with me, why don't you?
22:25Another big, oversized, guzzly V8, complete with eight-track.
22:29Foxy Lady by Cher. Check that out.
22:32There's the Volkswagen Beetle.
22:37That's straight six. Good heavens.
22:39How did that get in here?
22:41Quite satisfying to see a Japanese car here, actually.
22:45Although I wouldn't be seen dead in one.
22:48If you see me in a Nissan, you know I'm dead.
22:51See this wee thing?
22:52Well, that's handy.
22:53Look.
22:53There, children.
22:54You want...
22:58A fiberglass Cadillac.
22:59It's a frightening idea, really, isn't it?
23:01There's the old Camara.
23:02That was always the white trash sports car, the equivalent of the Capri in Britain, you know.
23:08You get issued with a medallion when you buy it and an identity bracelet in case you forget who you
23:14are.
23:15This must have had a shunt.
23:17He probably got blinded by his medallion and hit a lamppost.
23:34So that's what beer tastes like.
23:36Gosh, it is very nice.
23:38You can see why they drink so much of it.
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