1932 Ford V-8 Engine, No. 1

When the V-8 went into production in 1932, Henry Ford and Ford Motor Company once again revolutionized the automobile market. The engine was the first V-8 light enough and cheap enough to go in an inexpensive car like a Ford. The secret was casting the cylinder block in one piece. This is a common practice today but was a manufacturing breakthrough in 1932. Henry Ford personally oversaw the design and development of the V-8 with a selected team of engineers located not in the state-of-the-art Ford Engineering Laboratory, but in Thomas Edison's Fort Myers Laboratory that had been relocated from Florida to Henry Ford's Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. It is believed that Henry Ford used the building, tools, and machines that Thomas Edison had used to help inspire the engineers and designers. A brass plate on this engine reads: "This is V-8 No. 1 Motor Hold for Mr. H. Ford."