Ford still produced the four cylinder car, in part to pacify those that demanded the four, and in part as a fail-safe against the untested V-8. The four cylinder was designated the "Model B" while the V-8s were identified as "Model 18." The V-8 and the four cylinder
shared the same body design, and were even produced on the same assembly line. The only real difference in body design was the V-8 emblem across the grille between the headlamps.
The Cabriolet Photo: P.833.57161.1
The Victoria Photo: P.833.57283.12
The Coupe Photo: P.833.57290.11
A Wagon Photo: P.833.xxxxxxx
Another Cabriolet Photo: P.833.57283.46
The Roadster Photo: P.833.57283.31
The Sedan Photo: P.833.56696.8
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The Phaeton Photo: P.833.57283.27
The grille Photo: P.189.9467
Here's the front seat Photo: P.833.56864.4
And the back! Photo: P.833.57998.4
This was not the first time a V-8 engine had been produced. The French Antoinette with an eight cylinder engine had appeared back in 1900, and the Rolls Royce company had a V-8 by 1905. Even Ford Motor's own luxury cars, the Lincolns, had the V-8. Henry Ford had purchased the Lincoln Motor Company in 1922, and now used the Lincoln engine as a model to produce his own smaller V-8 engine: one that could be mass produced. Ford's cast-in-one-piece, four-cylinder engine allowed him to sell his cars at low-cost because the simple engine could be produced in such huge volume. The Lincoln automobile sold for many times the amount of the Ford because its complex engine had to be cast and tooled in pieces and then assembled by hand.
Henry Ford poses with his first V-8 engine Photo: P.189.9787
An early experimental V8
engine. It has some unusual features that never saw production.
Photo: P.189.9484
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Henry Ford stamps the first V-8 engine off the assembly line. Photo: P.833.57031.2