A Quiz: Henry Ford Museum Pops the Hood - What Engine is That?
One of the red-circled events on my calendar every year is the Detroit Autorama, arguably the world’s best custom car and hot rod show. As is fitting for an event in the Motor City, the vehicles competing for the Autorama’s top prize, the Ridler Award, must actually function, they have to be driven onto the show floor under their own power, and the hoods are up during judging so the judges can evaluate the engine compartment.
While that makes for fair competition, it also makes for less-than-ideal photography of the cars’ styling. No kid sitting in seventh-grade study hall ever drew a hot car with the hood up.
It might surprise you, then, that I was excited to find out about the Engines Exposed exhibit running until the end of February at the Henry Ford Museum’s Driving America display.
The Henry Ford Museum is always worth a visit, but if you’re a motorhead, this is a particularly propitious time to check it out.
I was going to do a photo essay on the display, with a little bit of historical info to accompany each engine, but some of the engines are worthy of entire books by themselves and the post would have gotten unwieldy.
Instead, we decided that a quiz would be more fun. Can you identify the make and model of the car from just a cropped image of the motor?
Some of them are easier than others, as I didn’t bother to obscure any logos that decorate a few of the engines. And speaking of obscure, I’ll be surprised if you can identify all of them. Some are virtually one of a kind so don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t identify them. On the other hand, some of the motors and their motorcars are so iconic that you should give up your car guy/gal card if you don’t recognize them.
By the way, the flathead Ford V8 engine at the top of this post isn’t part of the quiz. That’s the first production Ford V8 ever made, with a hand-stamped brass plate reading:
THIS IS V-8 NO 1 MOTOR
One might say that’s a bit ironic in light of the fact that the V8 was Henry Ford’s second choice for a powerplant to replace the by-then venerable Model T’s four-cylinder engine. At Henry’s direction, Ford Motor Compan spent four years and uncounted dollars trying, in vain, to develop an X-8 layout before the industrialist accepted failure and turned to the V8 configuration. Still, though it was his second choice, the V8 was Henry’s baby. While the flathead Ford V8 was revolutionary in that it brought V8 power to non-luxury automobiles, it’s hardly a perfect design — and most of its technical shortcomings are the result of Henry Ford’s personal decisions.
The correct answers for the quiz are provided below, along with a gallery of uncropped photos.
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1. 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible
[Images: The author]
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A couple that I was able to recognize right off the bat are the '56 Mark II (the valve covers are a giveaway) and the '60 Corvair (the small center-mounted air cleaner and the rubber elbows are a '60 only thing). The Corvair shown here is a Powerglide, evidenced by the dipstick going through the firewall.
Yay number 37!!! I was hoping it would he on here. Mine isn't quite that clean, but not bad considering it's 237K miles. I had a red-on-grey 1986 LX once. It was in rough shape, but I should kick my own arse for not keeping it. I'd love to have it today.