Interest Fades in the Once-Mighty V-8

[Rhino]

I saw this in the NYTimes today and found it intriguing. What's everybody elses thoughts on this?
GM just canceled a $300M program developing the next Gen V8. They're on their way out within Ford. The Dodge's are getting absolutely crippled by their DoD.

Are we a dying breed?



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/bu.../16engine.html

DETROIT — The V-8 engine, long a symbol of power for American car companies, is sputtering.
At the Detroit auto show this week, Detroit’s Big Three are promoting smaller engines and alternative-fuel vehicles, eliminating the V-8 from many models and relegating it to niche status.
Ford Motor, which first popularized the V-8 in the 1930s, will start using a turbocharged 6-cylinder in many vehicles, including the next generation of its Explorer sport utility vehicle. The company has named its new engine technology EcoBoost, a nod to consumers’ concern for the environment.

“It’s pretty clear that the V-8 is on its way out of the mainstream,” said Ford’s chairman, William Clay Ford Jr.

General Motors recently canceled a $300 million program to develop a new V-8, citing new fuel-economy standards that require a 40 percent improvement in overall gas mileage by 2020. “That cancellation was a direct result of the 35-mile-per-gallon legislation,” Robert A. Lutz, G.M.’s vice chairman, said Tuesday.