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G.M. was not yet ready to gamble on a rear engine. One reason: Cole, working together with Cadillac Chief John Gordon (now G.M.'s president), developed a new short-stroke V-8 front engine with an increased compression. It proved so successful that it set the basic design for most of G.M.'s high-compression engines now in use. It was 221 Ibs. lighter (25%) than the Caddy's previous power plant, yet stepped up power by 7% to 160 h.p., and stretched fuel economy at first by 15%—and eventually to 19 miles per gallon. But Cole still hankered to perfect a rear engine for cars. In his spare time he designed a tank powered by an air-cooled, horizontally opposed engine (the same kind as in the Corvair). When the Korean war broke out, the Army grabbed the plan for its T-41 tank, and Cole was made boss of Cadillac's huge plant in Cleveland. There his idea of building a rear-engine small car took shape. Every night in his room at the Lake Shore Hotel, he bent over a drafting board, littered the floor with sketches. The idea seemed to have no chance, since big Cadillac had no plans to produce a small car. But bigger G.M. had plans for Ed Cole.
"Leave Your Keys." The Chevy Division was bucking a problem most uncommon in Detroit: it had grown too conservative. Chugging along on what was basically a 1937 engine, the division was losing out to competition. Sales had slipped from 1,517,609 cars in 1950 to 871,503 in 1952. G.M. President Charlie Wilson grew worried, offered to give Chevy Boss Thomas Keating anything or anyone to pep up Chevy. Said Tom Keating: "I want Ed Cole." Red Curtice, then G.M.'s executive vice president, sent a hurry call to Cole, told him of his promotion to chief engineer of Chevy. Startled, Cole asked: "How soon do you want me to wrap things up in Cleveland?" Replied Red Curtice: "Just leave your keys on my desk as you go out."
Cole rapidly began to build his own team—the team that was to build Corvair —and he laid plans to triple Chevy's 851-man engineering staff. Just a few weeks after Cole moved in, G.M. held a top executive planning session, and Board Chairman Alfred Sloan Jr. demanded unexpectedly: "What about Chevy?" It was the kind of moment that every aggressive young executive dreams about. Cole replied with cool confidence: "I just happen to have some plans for expanding Chevrolet engineering, and I'm ready to show them any time you wish." G.M. appreciates that kind of action. Quipped Charlie Wilson to Cole: "I'll bet that's the first time you ever had your plans approved without submitting them." Cole's staff grew to 2,900 engineers.
In just 15 weeks Cole and his crew designed a V-8 that cut the weight of the basic Chevy engine from 550 Ibs. to 506 Ibs., but increased power from 123 h.p. to 162 h.p. "We did not build a test model because there was not time to experiment," Cole recalls. "That's how crazy and confident we were." The engine proved to have bugs. But it also had zip, and when the bugs were eliminated, the zip gave Chevy sales a push.