March 31: Henry Ford reveals the first affordable V-8 on this date in 1932

By late 1931, Chevrolet had finally surpassed Ford in sales, and with Model A production ending in August of that year, the public and Ford dealers had little idea about what Henry Ford would do next. In fact, Ford had set his engineers to work for the previous two years on a new engine design, one that would offer far more power than the four and six-cylinders in other models but still be affordable. After experimenting with 8 cylinders in an X layout, Henry Ford chose to build a 90-degree V-8, contributing ideas with engineer Charles Sorensen and others.