Thread: RAT and mouse motor nicknames

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Where did the "RAT" name come from???? I'm assuming the "mouse" nickname came after that..

Actually the other way around. The small block Chev was called a mouse motor first, which led to the thought line "a bigger mouse would be a rat". The "mouse motor" term stemed from that age old battle of brand loyalty. It began when the Hemi folk started calling their engines "elephant motors" because of their large size. The sbc folk had pride in their engine's ability to make big power from it's comparatively smaller size. Thinking of the old wives tale about elephants being afraid of mice, the rag line resulted in the term "mouse motor".

As I recall the mouse motor name pretty much came first due to size. First time I recall seeing the term was Hot Rod Magazine back in the mid 60.The Rat name came about pretty much as a natural when Chevy introduced their new Big Block to the public in 65.

Here is a picture of a mouse next to an elephant (although I personally prefer the term Mastodon for the early HEMIs ).

Darn Bob Beat me (but I had to take a picture )

One intersting point, the SBC pictured actually displaces more than the HEMI.

It's a 357 (.040 over 350) and the HEMI is a 331. Also note that if you remove the HEMI heads that the blocks themselves are actually prety close in size.

I don't know if it's true, but I seem to remember the mouse-elephant connection came about the time Jenkins took over Hemi-dominated Pro Stock with the vega. (I am depending on my memory, which often gets me into trouble.) :-)

Yeah, that memory thing gets harder every year. My recollection is it sprouted from the Jr. Fueler battles, but I wouldn't bet the ranch on it.

jr fuel 301's on 100%

I always called my smallblock "the little engine that could".

theres always "baby rat", "mini mouse" and "mighty mouse"

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

... Thinking of the old wives tale about elephants being afraid of mice, the rag line resulted in the term "mouse motor".

Good ole' Myth Busters did a "Is an elephant afraid of a mouse" test on one episode and proved that at least the 3 "test" elephants they were using WERE afraid of the mice!! I always prefered my 427 Rat, but its LONG GONE...

I have nothing to reference but as a Chevy fan and Automotive trainer I remember this story going back to about 1967. Mouse motor name came from the Mighty Mouse cartoon. Because other manufacturers were already in the 300 pluse Cu In at the time of Chevys development of what we call the small block now, it was not called that when it first came out. It was just Chevys entry into the V 8 field. At 265 Cu Ins it preformed past all expectations. They could have easily called it Superman or Batman because of its super performance. Engineers and performance people called it Mighty Mouse. (I do not know who coined the name) The name really didn’t take off until the big blocks came out from Chevy and sometime after that Mighty was dropped and just called the mouse motor with the Big Block being known as a Rat motor because its bigger than a mouse. The popularity of these knick names really didn’t catch on until about the mid sixties.

hey hey that means the elephants were scared of mouse's not rats hahahahahaha.