Where did the nickname rat motor come from?

Just siting here thinking how the term rat motor came about, and Im thinking mouse motor was a spinoff of rat motor or vise-versa. How about others like flatheads(I get that one but who came up with the sayings)

 

Rat spinoff of mouse

 

You think too much!

 

In 1955, chevy introduced the 265 small block. It became a success with stock car drivers because it was small, light weight and a powerful motor. These drivers nicknamed the motor the "Mighty Mouse", after the very popular cartoon of the time, because the motor was small and powerful. Over time, the nickname was simplified to just "Mouse". The "Rat" nickname is a spin off of "Mouse" and is used as a nickname for the "Mouse" motor's larger, heavier and more powerful counter part

 

It began in '60s drag racing with the custom of referring to the Chrysler hemi as an "elephant" motor due to it's size. The Chev loyalists, being proud of the power output of their small block engines relative to size, coined the term "mouse motor" because elephants are supposedly afraid of mice. It's then natural that a "big mouse" is a rat...............

EDIT: This is the '60s SoCal drag racer version of the story from someone who actually lived it.....others will vary I'm sure....

 

What he said ^^

 

uncle Bob is wright I lived also when I was Racing the
small Block==was a Mouse Motor
Big Block==Rat Motor

Back in the Day
I ran a Rat Motor

just my 3.5 cents

 

Well you got the "elephant mouse" ****ogy following thru to "rat" being the bigger mouse.
Faltheads well they are flat with no moving parts.
Nailheads by Buick come from the valve shape and configuration in the heads

Is that what your talking about?

Hemi comes from the shape of the combustion chamber.

Then you have the Harley knuckle head, pan head, shovel head but that's off topic.

 

And now there are "rat" sized mouse motors! What shall we call them? We can start a trend right here on the hamb....hhhmmmmm.....this requires "considerable snake eyed concentration" ...(Quote from "Little Bigman"hahaha...

 

Yuppers, Mouse = small Rat motor = big nothing hard to understand.

I'm not sure exactly when or why the sbc was called a mouse motor or if it was actually a positive nickname at the time as it may have come from the owners of bigger engines that got beat by the little Chevy V8's at the drags or it may have come in 1958 when the W engines came out. The 396 got nicknamed the rat motor from the get go by one of the magazine writers at the time I think.

v8

 

This is almost exactly as my dad explained it to me when I asked this question as a kid.

 

More guesses to confuse the issue
M_I_ C_ K_ E_Y = small block
Rat = Big Mouse
this was also the era of the Rat Fink, so it must be traditional.

I think the Mr48chevy answer above was the actual fact.

 

From Byron Stack (G***er Madness here)

"Skip Hess is generally given credit for coining the term “Rat Motor” for the big-block Chevy when he had Jack Burr add that lettering to the scoop on the Shores & Hess Anglia when the big motor was put in the car."
Larry T

 

Somebody talkin bout me ???

 

Kool stuff. I never put 2 and 2 together about the elephant and mouse thing, sound like a good story to me. So who came up with the nailhead term.(any buick guys out there).

 

I'm pretty sure it was Tim the tool man Taylor or maybe Bob Villa.

 

...because the valves are straight up instead of angled on a Buick?

 

I remember them first being called "The Daytona Mystery Motor" then "The Porcupine Chevy" then "The Rat Motor".I never heard the term "Mouse Motor"until AFTER the term Rat motor.

 

Because the diameter of the valve is small in relation to the length of the stem...looks like a nail.

 

It is interesting that GM always referred to the big block as the Mark IV, they never even officially called it the big block.

 

Then there's the "baby elephant", in reference to the smaller displacement hemi engines.

 

Same version I learned back in the same era, can't remember now exactly from where I picked it up.

Ed

 

I live so far out in the country that i never heard a SBC called a "mouse motor" until long after we called the BBC a Rat. Like the feller said " I never get it, until whatever it is i'm supposed to get is gone".

 

I am thinking the 400 was the mouse and then later all small blocks were included ... the rat came before the mouse . ... and I was also socal in the sixties! LOL

 

Nailhead due to the small diameter of the valves, so ive heard.

 

Another version : wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_small-block_engine

The first generation of Chevrolet small-blocks began with the 1955 Chevrolet 265 cu in (4.3 L) V8 offered in the Corvette and Bel Air. Soon after being introduced, it quickly gained popularity a**** stock car racers, becoming known as the "Mighty Mouse" motor, after the popular cartoon character of the time, with the simpler "Mouse" nickname becoming much more popular as time went on.

 

I thought it was named that cause mice like to build nests between the valve covers on the intake.

 

When Coo Coo Marlin jumped his big block Chevelle over the high bank at Daytona, the engine was called a Porcupine, because of the valves sticking out all over like quills. Some writer mentioned that the big round ports looked like rat holes, and the rest is history.
I likewise never heard a SBC called a mouse until the "rat" moniker came along.

 

Theres so many stories out there I dont think we will ever know for sure what the real story is. I know about the whole nailhead thing Im just wondering who coined the phrase.

 

It would be interesting to dig through 65-66 Hot Rod mags to see when it showed up in print. I do remember an article about the new engines and calling it a porquipine because of the canted valves. Not a big jump to rat from there.
Larry T

From Don Montgomery's Supercharged G***ers book.