Fancy pants Cadillacs and LaSalles were powered by V8s, while more proletarian vehicles like Ford's Model A and Chevrolet's Universal AD made do with inline ... 221 cubic inch flathead V8.

Ford's first Flathead—a 3.6-liter 221 cubic-inch unit—was known ... The Flathead's competition was inline-four engines, seen in the Austin 7 and the MG Midget in the UK market.

While the Small Block Chevy may be the most tunable and the Chrysler HEMI the most powerful, Ford’s Flathead V8 engine has been around for nearly a century and is the grandfather of every V8 ...

models in the Ford lineup: the 3.6-liter version of the flathead V8 engine. Another one of Ford’s successful sub-brands was the medium-priced Mercury, which arrived on the market in the late 1930s.