[rotorwrench]

Henry Ford was a smart man but he had a knack for finding other smart men to make his "minds eye" ideas work. Charlie Sorensen and an author put together a book from the daily diaries that he kept while working for Henry for the 40 years he was there. It has a lot of info from the development of the model T through the model A and eventually, the V8. Charlie didn't design the model A engine either but he knew how to pattern it and cast it so he and a lot of other men put it all together. One of Henry's employees of the Ford aircraft division figured out how to get the 40-horse power out of it when it was not doing so under the original design.

Henry Ford's true genius, if you want to call it that, was as an industrialist with an eye toward complete consumerism. If you make it good and make a lot of them, the price can come down to where it will still be profitable. The more you make, the lower the price. Pay your workers well and they will be driving your new products just as well. You can call it political discussion but what it boils down to is that it would be nearly impossible to replicate what Henry did in this day and age. Too many factors have changed such as labor unions and government regulations about how to build an automobile. Just these two factors alone stifle consumerism. It's not impossible to make a profit building cars these days but just look at the prices and you can see that "every man" may not be able to afford a new Ford.

A 5-main motor will open a new chapter in the history of the model A but we won't know how it works out until folks decide they want to go that route. The old Fords weren't designed to go much more than 60 to 65 mph in original configuration but it may bring in some unknown reliability factor that attracts customers to it. It certainly wouldn't hurt a thing. A lot of folks just make a hot rod out of the old A anyway if they want to go faster.