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On paper, it should have heralded a new era of emissions-compliant performance. First fuel injection for the Corvette since the Sixties. Dual throttle bodies. More power than the outgoing carbureted small-blocks. Fastest American production car. Yet the early Eighties Cross-Fire Chevrolet V-8s have largely been derided as a dud and as the worst engines Chevrolet ever slipped under the hood of the Corvette. So what went wrong?
In essence, compromise and the engine's inability to live up to expectations.
Emissions standards and corporate average fuel economy numbers might have severely curtailed performance throughout the mid- to late Seventies, but in Detroit, long dependent on horsepower and image to push the metal, the itch to inject more performance into cars never went away. After a fling with stripe and handling packages, American carmakers decided to confront the issue head on, as the regulations intended, by embracing new technology.
"For us, electronics marked a breakthrough that allowed us to have power as well as low emissions and good fuel economy," Corvette engineer Dave McLellan told Karl Ludvigsen for the latter's book, "Corvette: America's Star-Spangled Sports Car."
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Re: Ask a Hemmings Editor: Was GM's Cross-Fire V-8 Really a Bad Engine?
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