Crossfire Hurricane

The L83 Crossfire-injected Corvettes are the red-headed stepchild of the 'Vette world... but why?

- Dave Smith

Time has not been kind to the Chevrolet 'Crossfire' fuel injected engines. They have a very poor reputation – at one point the system earned itself the nickname 'Ceasefire' injection – and they have been consigned to the Eighties history bin alongside Betamax video and the Sinclair C5 as devices that promised much but somehow fell way wide of the mark. But was it deserved?

Through the latter half of the Seventies, new laws governing fuel consumption and emissions saw Chevy's 5.7-litre small-block V8 struggling to even achieve 200bhp. Yes, they sounded the part, but for a nation of petrol heads who were buying 400bhp+ big-block muscle cars just a few years previously, merely making the right noises wasn't enough. The Corvette was America's beloved sports car, but if a Datsun could have your trousers down at the traffic lights, that was an embarrassment too far.