An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion chamber in the engine block. Single overhead camshaft (SOHC) engines have one camshaft per bank of cylinders. Dual overhead camshaft (DOHC, also known as "twin-cam") engines have two camshafts per bank. The first production car to use a DOHC engine was built in 1910. Use of DOHC engines slowly increased from the 1940s, leading to many automobiles by the early 2000s using DOHC engines. Design In an OHC engine, the camshaft is located at the top of the engine, above the combustion chamber. This contrasts the earlier overhead valve engine (OHV) and flathead engine configurations, where the camshaft is located down in the engine block. The valves in both OHC and OHV engines are located above the combustion chamber; however an OHV engine requires pushrods and rocker arms to transfer the motion from the camshaft up to the valves, whereas an OHC engine has the valves directly actuated by the camshaft. Compared with OHV engines with the same number of valves, there are fewer reciprocating components and less valvetrain inertia in an OHC engine. This reduced inertia in OHC engines results in less valve float at higher engine speeds (RPM). A downside is that the system used to drive the camshaft (usually a timing chain in modern engines) is more complex in an OHC engine. A disadvantage of OHC engines is that during engine repairs which require the removal of the cylinder head the camshaft engine timing needs to be reset. The other main advantage of OHC engines is that there is greater flexibility to optimise the size, location and shape of the intake and exhaust ports, since there are no pushrods that need to be avoided. This improves the gas flow through the engine, increasing power output and fuel efficiency. Single overhead camshaft (SOHC) The oldest configuration of overhead camshaft engine is the single overhead camshaft (SOHC) design. A SOHC engine has one camshaft per bank of cylinders, therefore a straight engine has a total of one camshaft and a V engine or flat engine has a total of two camshafts (one for each cylinder bank). Most SOHC engines have two valves per cylinder. Motion of the camshaft is usually transferred