Prepare for your new weekly dose of history, as WDD recaps significant events that took place in the tech and engineering space.

With the current prominence of self-driving and connected cars, it’s important to remember where we came from.

Over 80 years ago, on March 31, 1932, Ford Motor Company introduced its Flathead V-8 engine in its Model 18 car. Nicknamed simply the Ford V-8, the car had mass-market appeal for its consumer-friendly low price—and represents a significant engineering milestone in American automotive history.

Although the V-8 had existed since 1902, Ford was the first company to make it commercially available to the masses.

An important innovation in the V-8 engine was the casting of the crankcase and all eight cylinders in one engine block. (Other models during this time consisted of multiple cylinder blocks set to a common crankcase.) Additionally, thanks to improved foundry, heat-treating, and other manufacturing processes, Ford built its crankshafts from cast steel, as opposed to forged steel, resulting in far less expensive, but just as strong, cranks.

Fun fact: because of its short crankshaft, the V-8 was the preferred engine of choice among hot-rodders well into the 1950’s, due to its durability in comparison to six-cylinder engines.

Ford would go on to install the V-8 (with only minor changes over the years) in its cars and trucks until 1953.