Vintage Thing No.34 - the Chevrolet Carry-All Suburban

It was as we were returning from Andover and making a pit stop for fuel that we spotted this splendid example of a Chevrolet Carryall. The following day was Remembrance Sunday and this Vintage Thing was prompting motorists into remembering the fallen. Just like John Sartain's Dodges, this is a remarkable survivor and is essentially a civilian vehicle that was pressed into service at short notice and without much adaptation. Its full title is a Chevrolet Series BJ Carry-All Suburban. As part of the AK series of light trucks it was rated by the military at half a ton and had the standard 85 bhp 6 cylinder Chevy engine.

I am reasonably certain it's a 1942 model. How do I know? My big book of Chevrolet suggests the tailgates were different. On the '41s, it was split horizontally and the '42s had the option of a vertical split. The sheet steel pressings were essentially the same. Later versions of the Carry-All Suburban lacked the chrome on the grille. Whatever the year, I just think it's a great overall shape, obviously styled by Detroit's finest but still looking good in a shiny version of something close to olive drab. This particular example is an absolute peach. Just look at those hubcaps! According to the sign writing on the door, this particular example was based at Providence on Rhode Island. Obviously much loved, it's been christened "Rhode Runner".

The panel work was also used for GMC body style No. 993 and, according to my rather small book of GMCs, these featured at 95 bhp six cylinder engine with four forward speeds as opposed to the Chevy's three. Like its cousin, it could carry six people in three rows of seats. Passenger-side windscreen wipers were an optional extra but all were side windows could be lowered for ventilation.


Unlike contemporary Dodges, the Chevrolet engine was endowed with an overhead valve design and four main bearings. It had a bore and stroke 3.5" x 3.75" to give a CID (cubic inch displacement) of 216.5. This equates to 88.9 by 95.25 and cubic capacity of 3547. It had been in production since 1937 and the basic design continued in production until the overhead valve small block 265 CID V8 was introduced in 1955. Incredibly, despite the relative sophistication of overhead valves, the six cylinder Chevy engine had cast iron pistons. Officially christened the Blue Flame Six, it was nicknamed the "Stove Bolt Six" on account of its slotted head bolts. It was also known as the "Cast Iron Wonder" and gained an undeserved reputation as a sluggard, although one Juan Manuel Fangio used it to win the 5900 mile Buenos Aires to Lima Road race. By 1941 the Blue Flame Six produced 90 bhp at 3300 rpm on a 6.5 to 1 compression ratio. it continued in production until 1955 when the small block Chevy V8 was introduced, ushering in a quantum leap in performance terms.

Cast iron pistons - that just sounds so wrong! As a child, I remember reading about WO Bentley who made his name convincing the French DFP concern to adopt aluminium pistons. This innovation significantly improve the performance and WO Bentley finished sixth in the 1914 TT. The lighter pistons allowed much higher engine speeds through lower reciprocating weight.

It seems incredible to me that the Chevrolet Blue Flame Six had overhead valve gear when so many of its his contemporaries were side valve flatheads and yet was lumbered with cast iron pistons. I can just imagine the conrods groaning as they cope with the inertia of these heavy slugs at top and bottom dead centre when their weight just wanna keeps them going on as the rods are trying to haul them back down the bores.

Cast-iron slugs may sound like the recipe for an absolute doorstop but Chevrolet passenger cars could manage 85 mph pre-WWII and offered remarkable value for money - but not fuel economy. The old Stove Bolt Cast Iron Wonder was popular, too, as evidenced by having at least two nicknames.

Mind you, I expect some enterprising Yankee made after market alloy pistons for this engine. And maybe cast iron pistons are not as heavy as I think. The aluminium Buick V8 was sold to Rover at a knockdown price because advanced thin-walled cast iron casting techniques had meant that iron engines of a similar weight and size to an aluminium engine could be produced at much lower cost.

This little Chev was another type of truck that my father admired. I can remember him drawing the Chevrolet front-end at the same time as he sketched out the Dodge D15 grille. Even as a military vehicles, the Detroit styling makes them aspirational items of desire and as a people carrier this old bus has more modern versions beaten even before they became the twinkle in their designer's eyes.