Citizen Ford’s V-8

Henry Ford has always been for me the most intriguing of the mighty industrial tycoons who arose in this country after the Civil War, so I found Mr. Halberstam’s article on him (“Citizen Ford,” October/ November 1986) particularly entertaining. I was more than a little puzzled, however, by the following statement: “In 1936 … Henry Ford reluctantly built a six-cylinder engine. It went into production a year later.”

I am aware that Ford began marketing a six-cylinder line around 1941, but how can anyone produce a fairly lengthy exposition of the founder’s career without so much as a mention of that great flathead V-8 that was the sensation of the automobile world in 1932? It was just as reliable and durable as Chevy’s fabled “cast-iron wonder,” and it had jackrabbit quickness.