Chrysler V8 engines and wartime history just go together. After all, the Hellcat engine was named after the US Navy’s Second World War Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter plane.
But a Chrysler V8 played a real-time part in the Cold War. In the 1950s, Americans fully expected a nuclear attack and so the logical thing to do was have massive air raid sirens all around the country, so citizens would know they were about to be vaporised.
The government wanted to go big and needed the project to happen fast, so it made sense to approach a mass-producer; like Chrysler, which was paired with industrial research company Bell Labs to create the Chrysler-Bell Victory Siren (somewhat ironically named), powered by a 104kW eight-cylinder engine. With the noise output through six horns, it generated 120dB at 300 metres.
It did require a human operator, though, who had a special seat and had to stay right until… the end, presumably.
A second design in 1952, the Chrysler Air Raid Siren, upgraded to the then-new 134kW Hemi V8. It remains the loudest siren ever made (138dB at 300 metres) and could be heard 25km away (about four times the reach of tsunami sirens currently used in the US). Another major advance was the removal of the human operator, replaced by a control panel that could be activated by phone.
Chrysler made about 350 Sirens and of course; none were ever used for their intended purpose, which is a good result. Some have now fallen apart or been destroyed, some survive in their original locations, while others have gone to museums and collectors.
In 1997, a British documentary film crew fronted by Robbie Coltrane showcased one of the Sirens at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing – and even managed to fire it up. Check it out in the video above. The Siren has since been restored and is now displayed in the Museum.