The First Low Priced V-8
How Many Built: 178,749 built in 1932, tens of millions more through 1953
Starting Price: From $460 for a standard Roadster to $650 for a convertible sedan
Nickname: ‘Deuce’
Henry Ford had been experimenting with unusual multi-cylinder engines even before the Model A. He rejected an inline six as being a copycat, seeking something distinctly different to perpetuate the image of Ford as the automobile innovator. A more powerful V-8 for a low-priced car offered that innovation.
Development went on in complete secrecy in a workshop used by Henry Ford’s revered friend, inventor Thomas Edison, which Ford had moved to Michigan. The first prototype was completed in May 1930. The Ford V-8 would go on to upend the American automobile industry. Its 221-cubic-inch V-8 engine produced 65 horsepower, over 50 percent more than Model A. It had a single-piece cylinder block and crankcase, a marvel of foundry technology at the time. The V-8 was short and rigid, and it dropped right into the space designed for the Model B four-cylinder engine already planned for production in 1932. That meant no expensive factory re-tooling.
The Ford V-8 did have problems, like cooling issues that were never adequately solved. But its light weight, reliability and substantial power laid the base for American automobile engine development for years to come.
Even bank robbers John Dillinger and Clyde Barrow wrote to Ford to express their appreciation for the Ford V-8. Barrow and his girlfriend Bonnie Parker met their end in a bullet-riddled 1934 “Fordor” (the company’s pun) sedan.
