Top 10 Most Significant Corvette Engines of All Time!

Corvette has been motivated by some remarkable engines, starting with the Blue Flame I6 back in 1953.

Since the Chevrolet Corvette came to market back in 1953, it has been produced with over 30 engines, many of which were offered in multiple variations. Every engine that has ever been offered in a Corvette was great in its time and many have gained legendary status. Some are well-known due to sales volume, but others played a bigger role in Corvette history.

Power plants like the 327-cubic inch and 350-cubic inch small-block V8s were sold in high volume for many years of the Corvette. The 5.7-liter V8 with the Tuned Port Injection system was another key component in the car’s history, as was the 1990s LT1. It can be argued that these high-volume engines are the most significant due to how many vehicles were purchased with one of them under the hood. However, we picked 10 that we think were the most significant engines in the history of the Chevrolet Corvette. We even include an explanation of why we picked each engine, none of which focus on sales volume.

Since it would be too hard to qualify the best Corvette engine, we are listing our most significant Corvette engines in chronological order rather than placing them in an ascending or descending ranking order.

1) 1953 – The First Ever Corvette Engine

When the first-ever Corvette was introduced for the 1953 model year, it was powered by an inline-six engine named the Blue Flame. Measuring 235 cubic inches, the original Chevy sports car engine offered 150 horsepower in 1954 and 155 horsepower in 1955. It was completely replaced by the V8 in 1956, but it made its place in American performance history.

Without this six-cylinder engine, the world may have had to wait until the introduction of the V8 in 1955 for the first Corvette.