This short Ford promotional film from 1935 charts the changes in America’s favorite V8 car that year. Includes some great scenes—have a look. 

The Ford lineup was treated to significant improvements for 1935. The famed flathead V8, rated at 65 hp for its 1932 introduction and bumped to 75 hp for 1933-34, was upgraded to 85 hp, its power rating for years to come. Bodies were bigger, rounder, and more modern for ’35, and the transverse spring was moved out in front of the beam front axle, lengthening the spring base and making the old Ford buggy suspension a little less sensitive to pitch.

However, the real appeal in this great old newsreel is in seeing the Ford men, father Henry and son Edsel, as they inspect the new 1935 Ford cars. As we often remark here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, film footage like this allows our favorite figures to step off the flat pages of the history books and become more multi-dimensional.

It’s also a lot of fun seeing the year’s new Ford models hustled around a dirt course at an impressive pace. We’d like to say no now-precious Fords were harmed in the production of this film, but we don’t know that. There may well have been a few unfortunate incidents. At about a minute forty in of the two-minute reel, watch for some serious V8 hooliganism.