Henry Ford could never have thunk it.

Byline: J.P. VETTRAINO

It was light, sturdy and fast-top speed 85 mph-and it had great pickup. "Getaway,'' they called it during the Great Depression. Perfect for a police car.

Now, those attributes that made the 1932 Ford V8 a solid tool of the law also were appreciated in the underworld. Outlaw John "Jackrabbit'' Dillinger was known for his skills at the wheel of a Ford V8, even if his alleged letter to Henry Ford was proved a hoax.

From its launch in March 1932, the Ford V8 quickly became the car of choice for gangsters and bank robbers who dominated Depression-era headlines, and that was the least of its accomplishments. The "Deuce'' pushed Ford closer to the brink of insolvency and raised the public's expectations for a standard, reasonably priced automobile. It was half inspiration, half desperation, like so many of the moves that marked Henry Ford's career.

Yet the 1932 Ford's full impact would not be apparent for decades after the first one rolled from the Rouge complex in Dearborn-not until it had completed a figurative journey to California, became the basis for a subculture called hot rodding and built a foundation for the billion-dollar aftermarket speed-parts industry.

"It changed things so many ways,'' recalls NHRA founder Wally Parks, who was editor of Hot Rod through the 1950s. "Foremost was the flathead V8-the dry-lake speed trials were its first test bed, and it took off from there.

"The Deuce was light. It had multiple features that made it easy to work on, and if you drove around town with your fenders off, you were someone cool.''