For 1941, Henry Ford surprised the car industry when he introduced an inline six to sell right alongside his successful and popular V8 models.

According to Motor City lore and legend, Henry Ford despised six-cylinder engines. He had no great regard, it is said, for his own six-cylinder Model K back in 1906-08, which was in part forced upon him by his investors. And in 1929, when Chevrolet introduced a six-cylinder model to compete against his own four-cylinder Model A, Ford famously quipped, “I have no use for an engine with more cylinders than a cow has teats.”

So in October of 1940, when the father of the Model T introduced an inline L-head six to sell alongside his popular and successful flathead V8 in the newly redesigned 1941 Ford passenger car line, it was seen as totally out of character. It was the end of the world in Dearborn; hell had frozen over. And that’s how the car world still views the matter today.

But in our view, Ford’s supposed dislike of six-cylinder engines has been, at the least,  greatly overstated. His problem with the Model K was not its six-cylinder engine per se, but that it was not the car he really wanted to build: the Model T. At around that same time he created several six-cylinder race cars, and he also produced six-cylinder prototype versions of his Model N and Model T. And in an article on the subject in the trade journal The Automobile on June 7, 1906, Ford pointed out the numerous advantages of the six over the four, including its smaller, lighter flywheel.

As for the famous line about dairy cow anatomy, we note that all through the 1920s, Ford was experimenting with his novel X-8 engines, and eight is also more than four. (See our feature on the Ford X-8 here.) So in reality, Ford didn’t really have anything against sixes. What he did enjoy was getting in a friendly jab at his closest competitor. At the same time, Ford knew the Chevy OHV six would ultimately prove superior to his Model A, and he soon went to work on the 1932 Ford V8.

We do know that Ford didn’t like to follow the herd, and in the 1930s, the L-head inline six had become nearly ubiquitous in the U.S. auto industry. Olds, Pontiac, the four Chrysler brands, Studebaker, Willys, Graham, Auburn, and others all offered side-valve sixes. It was an ideal package for the time: smooth, rugged, inexpensive to manufacture. But meanwhile, Ford’s alternative to the low-priced six, the miniature Ford V8-60, proved to be less than a success, mainly due to its tiny displacement and lack of low-speed torque, and it was discontinued in 1940. (See our feature on the V8-60 here.)

As the illustrations above show, the 1941 Ford G Series six that replaced the V8-60 was utterly conventional in design, with a striking resemblance to all the other L-head sixes on the American market. Nearly 10 years newer than the ’32 V8, the six enjoyed a number of detail improvements, and some will say the six is actually the better engine. Its displacement was 226 cubic inches, compared to 221 CID for the ’41 V8, and with only six cylinders it required a significantly longer stroke (4.40 versus 3.75 inches) to obtain a similar displacement. As a result, its piston speeds were greater, limiting rpm and producing greater cylinder wear, in theory anyway. In practice, fleet operators embraced the new six.

While the tried-and-true V8 was rated at 100 hp at 3800 rpm in ’41, the six produced 90 hp at 3300 rpm, and their road performance was remarkably similar. Famed mechanic and cam grinder Clay Smith, for one, made his early reputation modifying the Ford 6 for boat racing. While the G Series inline 6 never threatened the V8 in total sales, it won a solid spot in the Ford car and truck lineup through 1951, when it was finally replaced by an overhead-valve straight six.