Originally Posted by Tim Halliday
Clide Barrow, infamous outlaw from the '30s, was so impressed with the V-8 engine, that he wrote a letter to Henry Ford, thanking him for building such a fast "getaway" car.
Clide Barrow is my new hero!
Thats awesome.
Cadillac produced the first American V8 engine, 1914's L-Head. It was a complicated hand-built unit with cast iron paired closed-head cylinders bolted to an aluminum crankcase, and it used a flat-plane crankshaft. Bore was 3.125 in and stroke was 5.125 in, for a total of 314 in. of displacement. Output was 70 hp.
http://www.answers.com/topic/v8-1