When Henry Ford unleashed the flathead V8 upon the world back in 1932, he was hardly the first to market with the design; that honor belonged to aviator Leon Levavasseur, who had thirty years earlier invented “Antoinette,” a 24 horsepower motor that saw use in pioneering airplane designs. Other car brands, like Cadillac, Oldsmobile, and Rolls-Royce used the V8 as a marketing and branding tool, leveraging their rarity, opulence, and output as much as possible to entice buyers.
In one fell swoop, however, Ford changed all that. The Model B’s V8, a never-before-seen “en-block” design, could be made and sold for far cheaper than the competition, and the layout made the motor a great deal more tunable and easy to work on than engines of years past. In a sense, it was the powerplant that kicked off the hot rodding culture, as young men throughout the country sought bigger and better ways to squeeze more juice from the “flatty.”
Though far more advanced and efficient V8s have come and gone since 1932, the flathead retains its iconic status as the motor that started it all; the seed that sprang forth the high-performance tree in America. Men like Dick Raczuk, a jack-of-all-trades from Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and founder of KOULtools and Kerker (which he sold in 1985 and retired), retain a deep appreciation for the flathead, and choose it over late-model specimens like the LS series or HEMI engines because of its storied past.
Raczuk’s recent Deuce project, Project Flathead, borrows the namesake of its powerplant to reflect the tribute status of the car. “To me, there’s nothing like the sound of a flathead,” said Raczuk. “That signature heartbeat lope note you hear with a flathead is pure bliss.”
The Making Of A Classic
Starting in 2006, Raczuk was committed to the concept he had envisioned in his head for the perfect ’32 Ford. “It all started pretty early on, as the car barely made it 100 miles before it blew up,” said Raczuk.
As it stands today, the car boasts 204 horsepower and 305 pound-feet of torque flowing through a C4 transmission. It breathes through Fenton cast-iron exhaust headers and puts power to the pavement on ET wheels and Diamondback tires.
The tech behind the motor, however, is quite staggering. This is the fourth state of the motor, and final, hopefully, as Raczuk remarked. “It’s on its third ECU, an Emtron that I had shipped all the way from Australia,” said Raczuk. “It’s got quite a few tricks up its sleeve, like the ability to kill knock by shutting off a particular cylinder as opposed to an entire bank.”
Other techy highlights include the reflective coating that covers the pistons, valves, and combustion chambers, which had a positive effect on the exhaust temperatures. “They went up without damaging anything, so the coating is doing a fine job,” commented Raczuk. Handmade pieces, like the plenum and runner modifications to the intake, imbue the roadster with the man’s gearheaded genius.
This manifests itself in the chopped roof and dropped axle, halfway between being a hi-boy and a lowrider. “It was originally built by Randy’s Rod Shop over in Grant’s Pass, Oregon. He put a chop on it that’s a one-off, while the front has a four-inch drop axle,” Raczuk stated. “This gave the Ford a little bit of difference that makes it stand out from other ’32s.”
Thanks to guys like Raczuk and their passion for all things vintage, the world today gets to appreciate these classics for at least a little longer, hopefully for many years to come. Find Raczuk on the web to keep up with his daily life, including new builds, galleries, videos, and more.