How Ford’s Flathead V8 Became Icon of Hot Rod History
For the first few decades of the 20th century, V8 engines were finicky, expensive things reserved for low-production luxury cars. Fancy pants Cadillacs and LaSalles were powered by V8s, while more proletarian vehicles like Ford's Model A and Chevrolet's Universal AD made do with inline fours and sixes. Ford changed all of that in 1932 with the introduction of the 221 cubic inch flathead V8.
The Ford flathead was revolutionary, but why? It wasn't the first automotive V8 — that was either Rolls-Royce's extremely limited-edition 3.5-liter engine from 1905 or, arguably Leon Levavasseur's Antoinette V8. It wasn't the biggest (Cadillac L-heads were bigger), or the most powerful (the rare Cunningham V8 put down 90 horsepower in 1920), either. It was, however, simple, lightweight, reliable and cheap, all of which were extremely on-brand for Ford at the time. It hit an automotive industry dominated by small-displacement fours, inline sixes and supercharged straight eights like a hydrogen bomb, and would eventually help give birth to mid-century hot rodding …
(photo credit: Ford)
