The venerable four used in the Model A displaced The new V8 displaced cubic inches and was initially rated at a conservative 65 hp at rpm. By it made 85 hp at rpm, with only minor development. So using the same basic cast-iron technology as the four, the V8 made more than double the horsepower. Also, at that time, most eight-cylinder engines were massive straight eights, which required a long, heavy chassis.
The compact V8 package fit in the same underhood space as the old inline four. The V8 fell nicely into a Model A chassis, as hot rodders later discovered. There were problems to overcome with the V8 configuration: casting the complex L-head cylinder block in one unit to trim costs and engineering a practical dual-plane crankshaft.
Initially, the scrap rates ran more than 50 percent. And there are only three exhaust pipes per side, which may confuse modern eyes expecting to see four. But once the problems were under control, Ford had a smooth and powerful engine in a light, low-priced car.
With the Model T, Ford had put Everyman on wheels, and changed our world. With the Ford V8, now he gave Everyman some real horsepower, and changed our world again. The puritanical Ford was outwardly horrified, but made sure the letter received wide publicity. High performance was found in expensive automobiles. Not any more. The Ford V8 changed the way the average person related to automobiles.
Cars were no longer just transportation, which was magical enough in itself. Now cars could be real objects of desire for everyone. Horsepower had attained democracy. While people had always tinkered with cars, Fords especially, the power of the V8 opened up a whole new world of possibilities. The best we could do was to try to duplicate the experience. How do you go fast if you can't purchase a powerful engine?
The size and weight of a stock V-8 engine built by Ford and Mercury offered racers an affordable option. And rodders could eke out more horsepower by relying on this book. Henry Ford's V-8 engine was compact and powerful. It was light enough and cheap enough to put into his inexpensive automobiles. Did John Dillinger write to Henry Ford praising the industrialist's "wonderful car"?
In , Ford Motor Company received this letter apparently signed by Dillinger. Federal handwriting experts, however, concluded that the signature was not that of the fugitive gangster. On April 13, , Ford Motor Company received this unusual product testimonial. In it notorious bank robber Clyde Barrow extolled the virtues of Ford V-8s as getaway cars. Handwriting analysts have questioned the letter's authenticity, but it is the sort of thing the publicity-seeking Barrow might have written.
Henry Ford's last great automotive innovation was his introduction of a low-priced V-8 engine for Ford Motor Company's V-8 outsold its four-cylinder engine by a wide margin, and the four-cylinder unit was retired for The V-8 engine design remained in production until Engineers at Ford's Highland Park plant had fine-tuned the moving assembly line. With this experience in hand, Ford created the B building at its new River Rouge complex with extensive conveyer systems to accommodate the flow of parts and assembly processes.
These line workers assemble Ford's radical V-8 engines, the first 8-cylinder engines available for inexpensive cars. Ford's low-priced V-8 engine, introduced in , had a difficult start.
In addition to problems perfecting the engine's one-piece cast block, the Ford V-8 debuted in one of the worst years of the Great Depression. While the company routinely built more than a million cars a year in the s, it wasn't until that the one millionth V-8 appeared.
The Ford automobile combines the attractive facelift of the Model A with the world's first low-priced, cast-in-one-piece V-8 engine. Powered by Henry Ford's latest personal engineering triumph, his "en block", or one piece, V-8 engine, the Ford outperformed all other popular competitors. Frenchman Leon Levavasseur was a year-old inventor in when he took out a patent for the first V-8 engine he called the Antoinette.
The V8 since then has become the most reliable and efficient internal combustion engine to power automobiles and to see extensive use in power boats and early aircraft. The Antoinette, so named after the daughter of Levavasseur's financial backer, enjoyed a brief run between and powering monoplanes, racing boats and early passenger cars using lightweight or horsepower V8s.
Levavasseur witnessed his invention become the most popular engine in automotive history, but died in before seeing the Ford Motor Company and Chrysler perfect it. The V8 engine today is the standard powerplant for most rear-wheel-drive luxury cars, pickup trucks and sports cars, and also led to the creation of the more economical V6.
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