Friday 1st April 1932

Ford introduced its new offering: the high-performance Ford V-8, the first Ford with an 8-cylinder engine. Ford were the first company in the world to successfully cast this highly complex engine in one single monoblock piece. The V-8 was marketed as the Model 18 in its initial year, and commonly simply called the Ford V‑8. It had the new flathead V‑8 engine. The Model 18 was the first low-priced, mass-marketed car to have a V8 engine, an important milestone in American automotive history. The 221 cu in (3.6 l) V8 was rated at 65 hp (48 kW) when introduced, but power increased significantly with improvements to the carburetor and ignition in later years. This engine choice was more popular than the four-cylinder, which was essentially a variant of the Model A engine with improvements to balancing and lubrication.