Yunick had an intuitive understanding of engines from racing in NASCAR and preparing the Corvette motors for Sebring in 1956. Iskenderian also had a huge reputation from working on high-performance engines for Ford and Chevy.
“Smokey Yunick was the professor of the small-block,” says Tower. “He saved GM millions. He found out by racing what was weak and what wasn’t.”
Under the influence of people like Yunick, Iskenderian, Duntov and racing director Vince Piggins, the Chevy small-block would become the most successful production-based racing V-8 ever, winning thousands of races in SCCA, NASCAR, Trans Am and even IndyCar over the decades.
Yunick also worked with Zora Arkus-Duntov and John Dolza from Rochester Products on mechanical fuel injection, which debuted with the 283-cid V-8 in 1957. It was the second American engine to claim one horsepower per cubic inch; a limited-production 1956 Chrysler Hemi had beaten GM to the punch.
Tower recalls working with Yunick on exotic combinations, too, like porcelain cylinder walls and nickel alloy blocks. "I worked on the rings and the bores. We started to figure it out, but it was just too expensive to add porcelain at the foundry. But we did use nickel in our racing blocks."
As a testament to its staying power, in 2000, the Chevrolet small-block V-8 was honored by Wards Auto as one of the 10 Best Engines of the 20th Century.
http://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/Articles/2015/02/06/American-Engine
