The Chevrolet Corvette has been a strongly evocative car across its eight long generations. But even with an ever-expanding list of impressive cars, such as the 1,250-horsepower Corvette ZR1X, Chevy will always look back at 1955 with great fondness. That's when the Corvette really started to come into its own as a performance model with the addition of a 195-hp, small-block V8, along with the introduction of a three-speed manual gearbox.
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Following a redesign in 1955, the 150-hp, 3.9-liter Blue Flame six-cylinder engine, which debuted with the original 'Vette back in 1953 was discontinued, leaving the V8 and three-speed gearbox as the lone offering. Further improvements also followed in 1956 when the 4.3-liter (265 cubic inch) mill gained more power thanks, in part, to a redesigned camshaft that allowed it to put out between 210 and 240 horsepower. The V8 was again improved for the 1957 model year when Chevrolet increased the displacement to 283 cubic inches (4.6 liters), resulting in 220, 245, 250, 270, and 283-horsepower output levels.
Granted, a top output of 283 hp for a performance model may sound a bit disappointing today, but back when the 1957 Corvette launched, it was fairly respectable. Thanks to that output, the 283 cubic-inch V8, which used a Rochester Ramjet port injection system developed by Zora Arkus-Duntov and John Dolza, also grabbed the headlines for giving the Corvette exactly one horsepower per cubic inch.
Until that time, hitting the one horsepower per cubic inch mark had been nearly impossible for automakers. So, the 1957 Corvette finally achieving the feat was a big deal. But this wasn't the first time a car had achieved one horsepower per cubic inch. That honor belongs to the 1956 Chrysler 300B, which stole a march on the rest of the market.
The Chrysler 300B helped set the mold for performance cars
Bragging rights are an indissociable part of the car industry, and that held true even back in the '50s. Then, like now, Chrysler was too often playing catch up sales-wise and in the shadow of its huge competitors Ford and General Motors. Chevrolet had only introduced the Corvette in 1953, while Ford made the news for dominating the grueling Carrera Panamericana road race in Mexico between 1952 and 1954 with the Lincoln Capri.
Not to be outdone, Chrysler came up with a headline-grabbing car of its own, the C-300, in 1955. The luxury coupe was purpose built for road homologation in order for Chrysler to meet regulations and be allowed to go racing in NASCAR. The big news, however, was the unleashing of the beastly 331-cubic-inch FirePower Hemi, which generated an astounding 300 hp and in the process earned the Chrysler C-300 the title of the first American production car to hit 300 horsepower.
The following year, the Chrysler 300B arrived with an even larger variant of the engine, which was now displacing 354 cubic inches (5.8 liters). It made 340 hp in standard guise, but buyers could select a more powerful version rated at 355 horsepower thanks to a higher compression ratio of 10.0:1 (the 340-hp version had a compression ratio of 9.0:1).
This output not only made the 300B the first car to produce 1 horsepower for every 1 cubic inch of displacement, but it also meant that it was the fastest stock car at the time of its launch, with a top speed of 139.37 mph.
The 1957 DeSoto Adventurer Hardtop also pulled off the feat
Following the success of the C-300 in 1955, DeSoto, which fell under the wider Chrysler umbrella at the time, wanted a piece of that action. So, it launched the Adventurer, a two-door hardtop based on the DeSoto Fireflite Sportsman Coupe. But whereas the Fireflite used a 330-cid Hemi engine with 255 horsepower, DeSoto teamed the Adventurer with an enlarged version that had a displacement of 341.4 inches.
The engine also, among other things, adopted a more aggressive camshaft and high domed pistons that helped raise the compression ratio from 8.5:1 to 9.25:1. The result was an output of 320 horsepower, granting 0.938 horsepower for every cubic inch. As a result, the Golden Adventurer as the coupe has often been called, could hit a top speed of 144 mph.
But DeSoto wasn't done trying, as the engine's displacement grew to 345 cubic inches during the 1957 model year, bringing a corresponding increase in power to 345 hp. With that, the 1957 DeSoto achieved a power-to-displacement ratio of 1:1, just like the Corvette.
Ford also managed to cross the threshold that same year with the NASCAR-prepped supercharged Thunderbird, which produced 1 horsepower per cubic inch, thanks to a racing version of its unique Y-Block engine with 340 hp and a 312-cubic-inch capacity. But considering the Thunderbird had forced induction, you could say it was a pretty unfair fight. %!s()
Republicans have fully abdicated their congressional duty in service of the president's ego
John Cornyn, like most of the Republican Party, has spent a lot of time and energy embarrassing himself at the feet of Donald Trump. He posted a picture of himself reading The Art of the Deal. He tried to get a highway in Texas renamed after the president. The list goes on. But then Trump endorsed Cornyn’s primary opponent, Ken Paxton, in the Republican primary for Senate in Texas earlier this summer, effectively ending Cornyn’s career in Congress. He’s been fumbling around for his spine ever since.
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Most recently, Cornyn made a show of opposing the confirmation of Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, as attorney general. Cornyn, along with fellow lame duck senator Thom Tillis, wanted assurances that Blanche, who is currently leading the Justice Department on an acting basis, wouldn’t help Trump establish a massive slush fund to give taxpayer money to whomever the administration deemed has been victims of government “weaponization” — including Jan. 6 rioters.
Cornyn and Tillis have since come around, claiming Blanche has committed not to establish the fund to their satisfaction. Trump has made clear that he still wants it, though, and reporters asked Cornyn on Tuesday whether he’s concerned.
“Well, there’s nothing we could do to rein in the president when he said he likes the fund and wishes it still exists, but the fact of the matter is that it’s dead and that’s all we could do under these circumstances,” he said.
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There is, in fact, plenty Senate Republicans could and can do to rein in Trump. It’s very much the point of their jobs, and it continues to be a tragedy that they have abdicated their responsibility to check the president’s power because they’re terrified of making him mad.
Democrats in both the House and Senate introduced legislation to stop Trump’s anti-weaponization fund, but nothing ever came of the effort because Republicans would never vote for such a thing. Republicans could have introduced their own legislation to stop the fund, too, but alas, they simply could not. Why? Ask John Cornyn, who is still fumbling around for his spine, which unfortunately for the humiliated senator is still firmly in the possession of Donald Trump. %!s()
Emma Raducanu's stress fracture will force her to miss the US Open.
The British No 1 suffered the injury to her right lower leg during the grass-court season and made a late decision to pull out of Wimbledon.
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According to the Press Association, following consultation with her medical team, Raducanu has concluded she will be unable to play in New York later this month.
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While the news comes as no surprise given the nature of the injury and the fact Raducanu has only recently taken her first tentative steps back on court wearing a protective boot, it is another blow to the 23-year-old.
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Hours before withdrawing from Wimbledon, Emma Raducanu told the media that she intended to compete despite pushing beyond anything she normally would.
Having made positive progress last summer, including winning her first matches at Flushing Meadows since lifting the trophy five years ago, it has been a frustrating 12 months for Raducanu with more persistent physical issues.
After a foot injury severely hampered her pre-season training, Raducanu then spent two-and-a-half months off court with a post-viral illness after initially falling unwell in early February.
She finally returned for the end of the clay-court season having rehired Andrew Richardson, the coach who guided her to the US Open title, but the pair's time on court together has been limited.
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Raducanu enjoyed one of the best weeks of her career by reaching her biggest final since New York at Queen's Club in June, but it was that effort that triggered her latest setback.
She was not among the players named in Great Britain's team for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in late September and there must be question marks over whether Raducanu, who will slide from her current ranking of 49, will compete again in 2026.
Raducanu posted an upbeat message on Instagram on Sunday from a break in Switzerland, calling it the "best reset ever", although it did feature a video of her practicing serves with a protective boot on her right foot.
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"If you have a player like that who puts in so much defensive effort – not just tracking back but also pushing forward since he is the one who wins back the most balls high up the pitch in Ligue 1 – it means he is an atypical and modern player."
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Those were the words of Monaco coach Sebastien Pocognoli in March when speaking about Maghnes Akliouche. The player had scored the equaliser away to Lyon before winning the penalty that secured the three points. But Pocognoli praised his work rate.
It helps to explain why there has been such interest in Akliouche. The 24-year-old France international had been linked with a move to Liverpool but Paris Saint-Germain have won the race. Amid a market stacked with talented wingers, he brings something different.
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Dharmesh Sheth had reported that Liverpool made an approach for Maghnes Akliouche
There is the quality, of course. Akliouche has a highlights reel to rival the best of them. Be sure to check out his overhead kick against Rennes last year, a feat of acrobatics as well as technical proficiency. The variety of finishes in his repertoire is remarkable.
Some of them are blasted into the back of the net with surprising force, while there are others - such as his second in a win over Brest - that are dinked over the goalkeeper. Five out of the 18 goals in his Ligue 1 career have been scored with his weaker right foot.
But even rarer than the overhead kicks and the delicate finishes is for this sort of class to go hand in hand with such work ethic. Pocognoli was right to call it atypical. He was just as right to call it modern. Top coaches now demand it and Akliouche delivers.
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Maghnes Akliouche has impressive creativity stats but also works without the ball
"He is a really good pressing player," Abel Lorincz tells Sky Sports. He was Monaco's technical coach last season under Pocognoli having been in position under Adi Hutter before that. "He really shined in Adi's system. High energy, high pressing, lots of intensive actions."
Akliouche finished the season ranking third for possessions won in the final third of the pitch. "It is why I was not surprised that Liverpool were interested in him," says Lorincz. Andoni Iraola, like Luis Enrique, is a coach who demands that his players press high.
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Maghnes Akliouche's minutes by position for Monaco in the Champions League
But Akliouche is much more than hustle and bustle. This is a composed player, one who has matured, having played almost 150 games for Monaco. "He has amazing technical ability but he also has really high game intelligence," says Lorincz.
He puts Akliouche among that elite group of players who do not just learn from their coaches but teach them too. "They come up with solutions in games that maybe you did not think of as a coach." After his World Cup summer, he will have only grown as a player.
"If you are in that France squad and Didier Deschamps takes you to the World Cup, it is for a reason." And while Akliouche was restricted to just a few minutes off the bench, this is a player ready for the next step. "One hundred per cent. He is a really big talent," says Lorincz.
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Maghnes Akliouche's heat map and chances created for Monaco in the Champions League
"I think what impresses me a lot is that he is really good at taking in information. He is a really coachable player." Lorincz describes Akliouche as "really creative" and this can often come with a certain looseness. "For that type of player, he is very coachable."
Lorincz worked on set-pieces for Monaco last season and saw this ability up close when dealing with him. Despite his slender frame, Akliouche actually turned out to be a useful weapon in those situations - even if his role was not immediately obvious.
"He was one of the attacking players inside the box, mostly either closing down the second post or blocking. He actually blocked quite a lot for Eric Dier. That was his job for a lot of the time. And he was really good at it, to be honest," Lorincz explains.
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"Even though he is not a particularly big player, he was able to deal with some players who were bigger than him, and that is a testament to his intelligence. Also, sometimes we would change things around at half-time in terms of the attacking set-pieces.
"And sometimes, when you say something as a coach, you are not sure if the players will remember in the second half. That is just the nature of the game. But he always followed the instructions and did it. That is what I mean, that he is very coachable."
The man coaching him next will be Luis Enrique, the only three-time Champions League winner working in the club game right now. It is an opportunity for Akliouche to work with one of the best around. But this is an opportunity for Luis Enrique and PSG too.
They know all about Akliouche after he scored the opening goal of the game against them twice in consecutive weeks at the Parc des Princes earlier this year. A big-game player? What is certain is that for Maghnes Akliouche, there are many more of those to come. %!s()
Just a month out from their opening Women's Super League fixture, Manchester United find themselves without a head coach after Marc Skinner departed on Monday morning.
Sky Sports News understands the decision to part ways with Skinner was made after a series of talks over the summer regarding the future direction of the club.
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But the signs were there long before. Investment has been a contentious topic for the women's team ever since INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe took over the club in December 2023.
He made his position on the team fairly clear when, in June 2024, he told Bloomberg: "We haven't gone into that level of detail with the women's football team yet. We've been pretty much focused on how do we resolve the first-team issues, in that environment, and that's been pretty full time for the first six months."
Marc Skinner leaves Man Utd Women
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The comments drew ire at the time and, in the two years since, Ratcliffe has only further demonstrated how the women's team is not a priority.
Even as recently as April, Skinner - who had signed a new two-year deal last summer - was calling for more investment into the women's team if they were going to compete with the best.
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Sir Jim Ratcliffe has previously indicated the women's team is not a priority for Man Utd
"I'm absolutely passionate about what we do. But we have to do some changes in the summer," he said. "We have to make some changes to make sure that we can compete with what's clearly a financial market at times.
"And we want to do it our own way, we've said that and we're clear on that. But we have to make sure we write those smart assignments to keep pushing this team forward."
But it appears that his demands would not have been met. That, alongside a host of other issues, has finally come to a head and caused the split between Skinner and Manchester United.
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Highlights of the Women's Super League match between Chelsea and Manchester United - Skinner's final match in charge
Man Utd's change of approach
The ethos of the women's team is changing. When Ratcliffe and INEOS came in, the target was to win the league by 2028.
Now, the focus is completely different, with the club deciding to concentrate on the academy and developing players from within to challenge for silverware.
Man Utd believe investing more significantly in their academy will lead to longer-term success rather than higher investment in the transfer market which they currently believe is unsustainable. They feel there has been a lack of return on investment in star players and big wages.
Of course, the men's academy has a history of winning trophies with academy products, but this is untested in the women's game.
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Skinner won the Women's FA Cup with Man Utd in 2024
But this approach also takes something that is almost anonymous in football - time.
Skinner led Man Utd to four finals - three in the FA Cup and one in the League Cup - winning their first major trophy in the 2023/24 season, as well as competing in Europe for the first time.
They reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season and are the only team to have disrupted the WSL's 'big three'. But if youth is the approach, it may take some years before there are such consistent returns year on year.
And what message does this send to the big-name players already at the club? Ella Toone is out of contract at the end of the season. Will the club's new direction meet her ambitions to win trophies?
Man Utd a selling club as others continue to strengthen
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Melvine Malard - who scored 10 Man Utd goals in all competitions last season - has left the club this summer to join Chelsea
For many years now, Man Utd have been a selling club - even before Ratcliffe came in. Players have often been sold to direct rivals, the latest being Melvine Malard's move to Chelsea this summer for around £750,000.
Before that, there was Alessia Russo to Arsenal and Mary Earps to PSG. She returned to Man Utd last season in the Champions League and lined up against her former side. Now, she is set to do the same with London City Lionesses, who United face in their WSL opener on September 4, live on Sky Sports.
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Mary Earps shares why she has decided to join London City Lionesses and lifts the lid on her conversation with majority owner Michele Kang
In the last few months alone, two players who joined the club when it was reformed in 2018 - Millie Turner and Leah Galton - have also left. Only Toone remains from that squad.
And Man Utd's approach of utilising youth is already been felt, with just two incomings so far in defender Andrea Medina and goalkeeper Janina Leitzig. Whether there are any more remains to be seen.
Man Utd are concerned about the ever-increasing cost of trying to be a WSL title contender - but that is not the same for the teams around them.
The 'big three' - Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea - have all significantly strengthened. Tottenham - who finished in fifth behind Man Utd last season - and Everton have signed multiple players with WSL experience. Then there is London City Lionesses who are splashing the cash to try and win it all.
With so many squads in place, United are already playing catch up.
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Two-time Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas explains why she has decided to join London City Lionesses after leaving Barcelona
Lack of consistency cost Skinner
Some Man Utd fans will not be sorry to see the back of Skinner. He has not always been a popular figure in the dugout, despite his success at times.
Skinner is a great talker, a pleasure to chat to - but fans will say his words did not translate into actions.
Any time there seemed to be some sense of progress, it soon fell apart and consistency was an issue. Pace and intensity could often not be sustained over 90 minutes, allowing other teams back into games. There was often a marked difference to the approach from one half to another, or one game to another. You never knew which Man Utd would turn up.
That being said, in Skinner's five seasons at the club, Man Utd were fairly consistent with their attack. They often ranked fourth in the league for goals and other metrics.
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But defensively, Man Utd were inconsistent and have arguably been saved from further embarrassment by their goalkeepers Earps and Phallon Tullis-Joyce, both of whom won the Golden Glove under Skinner. While the goals conceded remained relatively low, the other defensive metrics varied wildly from season to season.
Defensive frailties often proved to be fatal and two key examples came this year. After the League Cup final against Chelsea, Skinner called the goals conceded "rubbish". A late slip in concentration against Bayern in the Champions League quarter-finals saw them score twice from set-pieces and win the tie, undoing much of the good work Man Utd had done up to that point.
There is a well-known saying that 'to be the best, you have to beat the best' - but Man Utd often did not.
In his five years at the club, Skinner never beat Chelsea in the WSL and only once in cup competitions on their way to the FA Cup title in 2024, perhaps illustrating the point even further.
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In the 2022/23 season, he was unbeaten against Arsenal (W2) and Man City (W1, D1). However, he only won one further game against Man City in January 2025 - thanks to a Toone hat-trick - although did play out goalless draws in both WSL meetings with the Gunners last term.
In their first four WSL fixtures, United face both Chelsea and Arsenal live on Sky Sports, giving any incoming coach an immediate test and that could set the tone for the remainder of the campaign.
Man Utd's opening WSL fixtures
September 4: London City Lionesses (A), kick-off 7pm - live on Sky Sports
September 13: Chelsea (H), kick-off 12pm, live on Sky Sports
September 19: Arsenal (A), kick-off 5.30pm, live on Sky Sports
September 27: West Ham (H), kick-off 1pm, live on Sky Sports
So what awaits the incoming head coach?
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Sky Sports' Anton Toloui explains why the WSL has decided to change some of its kick-off times this season
While fans were not always receptive to Skinner, they will also not be happy if Man Utd begin to slip down the pecking order.
Whichever team is wearing that famous red shirt, the expectation is to win - although it appears the WSL title is not one of those targets any more, at least not in the next two years as was the original aim of Project 2028.
Sky Sports News understands the club believe they are in a position to announce a new head coach quickly as background checks have already begun over potential candidates. A key quality the club are looking for in a new coach is one with a track record of improving and developing players.
Trying to reach finals and break into the top three must be achieved with youth rather than investment, which will be a tricky balance to strike. Man Utd have certainly over-achieved in recent years - do they have any more in them? %!s()
