The Ford V-8 Gives G-Men Run For Their Money

Henry Ford with his Miracle V-8 Engine--1932

Midway through the 1927 Model T year, Henry Ford announced he was shutting down operations in 25 of 36 Ford plants across the country to develop a new model to retain his company's hold on the low-priced market. The 1928 Model A was a big success with its new streamlined styling and a beefy, four-cylinder engine that performed favorably with Chevrolet's inline, six-cylinder. But Chevy's advertising slogan "A Six for the Price of a Four," captured the imagination of the car-buying public and Chevy was on pace to outsell Fords.

"If the public wants more cylinders, we'll build an eight-cylinder," Henry Ford told a group of hand-picked engineers. His goal was to produce an affordable V-8 engine for FoMoCo's low-cost line of cars. Ford did not invent the V-8 engine; in fact, Ford's Lincoln Division had offered them for years. But those engines were heavy, complex, and far too expensive for the low-priced market.

By casting the engine block in one piece of alloy steel, parts were eliminated and assembly was simplified. After much trial and error, FoMoCo offered its first Flathead [side valve] V-8 in February of 1932 as the successor to the Model A's four-cylinder engine. The 1932 Model 18 soon became known simply as the Ford V-8. The engineering of this innovative, affordable engine represented Henry Ford's last mechanical triumph for the company he founded. Ford was sixty-nine years old.

To accommodate the V-8's new engine dimensions, the Model 18 boasted a new frame with a wheelbase that was six inches longer than the Model A. The chassis for the Model A was simply two straight, steel rails. The Model 18 had an outward curved chassis with cross members welded-in for strength. The wider rear end gave the car more stability at high speeds which appealed to a specialized portion of the Ford V-8's fan base.

The Model 18's transmission was a manual, three-speed Sychromesh which greatly improved performance with a top speed of 65 mph in 1932. As improvements were made on the engine, horsepower climbed and speeds increased to 76 mph and beyond.

The Model 18 Ford V-8 came equipped with an electric fuel pump which allowed the gasoline tank to be positioned underneath the rear of the car for improved passenger safety. A high-pressure oil pump lubricated the internal workings of the engine. Rubber engine mounts reduced vibration and rubber weather stripping eliminated mechanical squeaks and rattles in the doors and the engine compartment.

1932 Model 18 Ford V-8

The Model 18 debuted in the Highland Park Ford Showroom on Woodward Avenue. Interest was high, but sales were slower than expected because of the Great Depression. Still the car sold a million in 1932 and the same number in 1933.

In 1934, Ford designer Joe Galamb updated the body of the Ford V-8 with a sweeping grill resembling a Medieval shield. The headlamps were built into the car's front end, rather than bolted to an old-fashioned headlamp bracket spread across the front of the car. The Ford V-8 was a brilliant performer winning road races and hill-climbing contests across the United States.

Restyled 1934 Ford V-8

The Ford V-8 became a favorite of bank robbers in the mid-1930s. John Dillinger broke out of jail in Crown Point, Indiana by whittling a piece of wood to look like a handgun. He used black shoe polish to disguise the phoney weapon and bluffed his way out of his cell. He then hijacked Sheriff Lillian Holley's new Ford V-8 parked outside of the jail and escaped. Two-months later on May 16, 1934, Public Enemy Number One John Dillinger allegedly wrote Henry Ford:

Hello Old Pal,

Arrived here at 10:00 am today. Would like to drop in and see you. You have a wonderful car. Been driving it for three weeks. It's a treat to drive one. Your slogan should be, drive a Ford and watch all other cars fall behind you. I can make any other car take a Ford's dust.

Bye-Bye,
John Dillinger

The provenance of the letter has never been established. Ford turned the letter over to the FBI, but they determined it was fake. Six weeks after the letter was received, John Dillinger was gunned down by G-Men in front of a Chicago movie theater on July 22, 1934, so the letter can never be properly authenticated.

Seventy-five years later, another Dillinger letter was found in Henry Ford's FBI file after a Freedom of Information search. This letter was dated May 6, 1934, at 7:00 pm.

Dear Mr. Ford,

I want to thank you for building the Ford V-8 as fast and sturdy a car as you did; otherwise, I would not have gotten away from the coppers in that Wisconsin, Minnesota case.

Yours till I have the pleasure of seeing you,

John Dillinger

This letter is believed to have more validity than the other letter Henry Ford leaked to the press. That letter was probably penned by some company adman. It is thought by Ford historians that because of the reference to escaping from the police, this rediscovered letter was not publicly acknowledged by FoMoCo.

Police departments all over the United States represented Ford's largest buyers of fleet vehicles, so Henry Ford, rather than risk angering law enforcement, turned the original letter over to the FBI where it languished for three-quarters of a century. That letter, though barely legible, is thought to be legitimate.

That was not the first endorsement Henry Ford's V8 received from gangsters. A month before the Dillinger letter was written, Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde fame wrote Ford on April 10, 1934.

"While I have still got breath in my lungs I will tell you what a dandy car you make. I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedon from trouble the Ford has even other car skinned and even if my business hasen't been strickly legal it don't hurt enything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V8."

Handwriting analysts question the authenticity of the letter. Some believe Bonnie may have written the letter for Clyde; others believe it was the brainchild of the Ford publicity machine. Forty days after the letter was dated, Bonnie and Clyde were shot dead by a posse of Texas Rangers and local police on a county road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934.

The stolen 1934 Ford V-8 Deluxe Sedan was riddled by 112 armor-piercing bullets. The coroner's report indicated 17 entrance wounds in Clyde Barrow and 26 in Bonnie Parker. When the car was returned to its rightful owner, it immediately began to tour the country as a notorious attraction at county fairs and carnivals.

Bonnie and Clyde Death Car

At least half a dozen fake death cars also toured the United States. The authenticated Bonnie and Clyde death car has the car's original registration number stamped three times on the car--the engine, the transmission, and the frame.

The original car is usually housed behind plexiglass at Whiskey Pete's Hotel and Casino in Primm, Nevada, but as of January 2022, it is part of an exhibit on loan to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum in Simi Valley, California.

Handwriting Analysis of Clyde Barrow's letter 

Ford Model A Replaces Tin Lizzie

Henry Ford posing with a Model T

From the mid 1910s through the early 1920s, the Ford Model T dominated the American car market. As the history books note, "Henry Ford put America on wheels." But over the car's eighteen-year run, cities began to pave the roadways and consumers wanted modern, comfortable, and fancier cars. The Tin Lizzie fell out of favor.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, used Model Ts sold for five to ten dollars because they were obsolete and nobody wanted them. Bootleggers used them to smuggle liquor across the frozen Detroit River because it was no great loss if they went through the ice.

A "flivver" as they were called during Prohibition.

By the mid 1920s, General Motors upgraded their manufacturing techniques and began to offer more powerful engines like a V-6, sleek styling, convenient driver controls, various colors, and some amenities as standard equipment like headlamps. When GM came out with an electric starter, while the Model T still had a crank and magneto, Chevy sales in particular cut deep into Model T sales.

Henry Ford resisted most efforts to upgrade the appearance of his Model T during its model run from 1908 until 1927, but his engineers continued to make improvements on the powertrain. Ford's son Edsel, president of FoMoCo in name only, tried to convince his father that the car market was evolving and people wanted something more stylish with better performance. Marketplace realities finally convinced Henry Ford that a new model was necessary.

After months of secret planning, on May 2, 1927, Henry Ford telegraphed his dealers nationwide that he was starting production of a totally modern car of "superior design and performance to any now in the low-priced field."

He announced to the press that he would be closing his factories and halting production to manfacture a new model which he and his son were sure would be "the next big thing." This was in mid 1927 which allowed Chevy to outsell Ford for the first time, though it was a false comparison. Ford stopped production on the Model T halfway through the year.  

The elder Ford oversaw the mechanical engineering leaving Edsel to work with a design team on body styling. This was the first and last time that father and son worked together on the same project.

Henry decided to name the secret car the Model A, which showed a lack of imagination and marketing savvy. It was redundant. In 1903, his first commercial product was also named the Model A, but because this new car was totally re-engineered and redesigned, he chose to begin all over again with the Model A designation. Not a single component of the Model T was used in the construction of the new Model A.

Original 1903 Model A also known as the Fordmobile. This was Henry Ford's first production car.

Mechanically, the reincarnated Model A was the first Ford to use the standard set of driver controls common in more modern cars which included a clutch, brake, and gas pedal on the floorboard. The Model T controls were antiquated and awkward by comparison. The standard Model A came equipped with four-wheel hydraulic shock absorbers, four-wheel mechanical brakes, and a new L-head inline four-cylinder, 40 hp engine with a top speed of 65 mph. Rather than a Model T two-speed transmission, this new car had a three-speed, manual transmission which greatly improved performance. 

Restored Model A [notice retrofit turn signals]

In addition to a shatterproof laminated windshield, the exterior of the new Model A was lower and sleeker than the Model T. This was the first Ford to carry the iconic blue oval logo. The Model A was available in many different body styles including coupes, a cabriolet convertible, various sedans, phaetons, a station wagon, a police model, a taxi, and a pickup truck. Rather than the body being available in just black, the original Model A also came in Niagra Blue, Arabian Sand, Dawn Grey, or Gun Metal Blue.

The 1928 Model A was officially introduced on December 2, 1927, immediately becoming a big hit with the public giving Chevrolet a run for its money. In its four-year production life, 4,858,644 Model As were built. That is a healthy number considering the Great Depression was raging at the time. Because of the car's popularity then and now, the Model A is considered by many car buffs to be the best classic American car ever made.

Best American Car Ever Made video