The most signifcant Ford V8 in my opinion, is not necessarily the engine that won the most races, produced the most power, went into the most cars...oh, no, not at all!

To me the most significant Ford V8 has to be the old Flathead V8, which came out in 19 and 32, and was still being installed under car hoods, up to 1953.

The flattie established Ford as, maybe the first low cost car, featuring smooth, effortless (relative for it's era) power, usually only found in much higher cost cars of it's time.

The flathead V8, also was significant in that it made Ford, the performance car. If a guy wanted a good performing car, for reasonable dollars, in the 30's, 40's or early 50's, did he buy a Chevy or a Plymouth?

Why no, Ford was the only choice for the performance minded guy on a budget. In fact the flattie established the start of the speed industry. Another significant milestone!

The Ford F/H V8 was a technological marvel, quite ahead of it's time , in the early 30's. To sell this kind of technolgy to the average guy, was significant.

To bring out a V8 in the midst of the depression and make it work, was significant and risky for Ford. It could of sunk them, in a time when few could scrape up the money for 3 squares a day.

IMO, the Ford Flathead V8 ranks up there , as far as the most significant engines of the 20th century, alongside the fabled, small block Chevy V8 and the original, air cooled, VW flat boxer, 4 cylinder.

And,...to cap it all off, Ford installed the redoubtable Flathead V8, into everything, from the smaller Ford V8 60s to P/U trucks to Military vehicles to large trucks. The flathead was stretched to 12 cylinders and found itself under the long, graceful bonnet (as the English would say) of Lincolns.

Hot rodders installed the flattie into everything else, with wheels.

So the question remains, are there any other Ford V8's good as they all are, even in the same, significant league as the original Ford V8, the famous flathead?

 

No argument here: the flathead is the most significant V8 Ford has ever built. It wasn't perfect, it had its share of problems, but it changed the way the average guy looked at cars.

 

And hey, the French were still using it up until a few years ago.

 

That's the first engine that came to mind when I saw the title of the thread. No question about, as far as I'm concerned.

 

john112deere
That's the first engine that came to mind when I saw the title of the thread. No question about, as far as I'm concerned.

Exactly my thoughts.

just curious 85e150six4mtod in what where the french using the Flathead?, in 2001 i saw one still working on a 50's dump truck.

 

I think the French were using the flat heads in military vehicles. I recall an article talking about how some hot rod emporium bought a bunch of them that were NOS, and the French had them as spares in their military stores. But the flattie wasn't being used anymore (just of late) and the French military sold out their remaining spares. I think FoMoCo was building flathead V8 rebuilds up to the 80's in a Canadian plant.

 

This is a 1937 Matford, a joint venture between Matis and Ford that produced cars until after WWII.



The operation was later taken over by Simca, which produced a ford-designed mid-sized V8-powered sedan until the early 60's.

 

Yea, that was the what I saw, in Hot Rod mag a few months back when they had an article on flatheads. 3 main bearings? Who knew....?

I couldn't find it on Hot Rod.com, and am too lazy to go through the magazine pile...the wife would think I'm cleaning up and expect results.

But if you google "French flathead" you will find this and a host of other info:

http://www.btc-bci.com/~billben/french.htm

 

Polar Bear,

Incidentally, there are Polar Bears in the extreme northern area of my province.

Great post. When you mentioned Simca, you triggered a long lost post. When I was a kid, I used to hang out at a Triumph motorcycle dealer, quite a bit, and I remember one of the owner's had a Simca Vedette with a Ford Flathead V8. Stock, not mix and match. I believe the engine was the smaller V8, would that be the Ford V8 60?

When he fired up that funny looking, French Simca, heads would turn. Instead of a hearing a little 4 cylinder engine note, you would hear pure V8 harmony.

This was the only Simca Vedette I have ever seen.

Les

 

Thanks for reminding me- the Vedette was the Ford design that got sold along with the Company to Simca.

 

I agree with the flathead V-8 from 1932, but not because it was easy to hot rod, or that it was faster than a Plymouth 6 or Chevy 6, but because old Henry found a way to cast a V-8 block in one piece cheaply. This innovation was key to the developemnt of OHV V-8 engines in the late '40s (Cadillac and Oldsmobile), and so on. I think the second most important V-8 produced by Ford was the Y-block of 1954. This was the first OHV V-8 (except for Studebaker) in a low priced car.

 

Yeah, next to Studey, it was the first low priced V8, as it beat out Chevy and Plymouth by a year, but, IMO, it wasn't a particularly good engine. I think even FoMoCo would back that up, considering they brought out the 221/260/289/302. .etc., series in 1962, which replaced the Y block. Why else would they dump the Y block?

The Y block soldiered on in trucks for a few more years, but I was never impressed with it.

My family had two Y blocks, a 292 and a 312. Not particularly impressed with either one. If Ford had brought the 221 series earlier, rather than the Y block, I think they may have held off the Chevy SB V8, from taking over the hot rod market, from the flattie.

I think in comparison, the 221 series Ford V8, has to rank next to the flat head V8, as the most significant Ford V8.

 

Since the Studebaker V-8 came out in 1951, I'd say the Y-block was second.
Dono

 

Dono- That's what I meant. The Studebaker V-8 did indeed come out in 1951, but the Y-block beat Chevy and Plymouth by a year, 1954 vs. 1955. And, Studebaker was the first independent with a modern OHV V-8, and beat Packard by 4 years, and Nash (AMC) by 5 years. Kaiser and Hudson never developed their own V-8s.

 

Don't forget GM's "Kettering" V8 that debuted in 1949 (Ooldsmobile and Cadillac). That was a OHV motor that soldiered on for decades until they sold it to...Rolls Royce.