The Most Beautiful Thing That Ever Happened to Horsepower: 1958 Edsel

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Meet the two big new V8s for the 1958 Edsel in this original Ford Motor Company television spot.

 

When the Edsel was introduced by the Ford Motor Company—on E-Day, September 4, 1957— its mission included two ambitious objectives. First, the Edsel was designed to be fresh and new in every way, starting with its unusual styling (weird might be a more accurate term, some would say). Next, the Edsel attempted, as much as possible for one car make, to be all things to all car buyers. The broad product range featured four model lines, with the junior Pacer and Ranger based on the Ford passenger car platform, while the deluxe Corsair and Citation were built on the larger Mercury chassis.  And there were two new V8s, each one based on an entirely different engine family. The Edsel was “the most beautiful thing that ever happened to horsepower,” the ad writers boasted.

As this original Ford spot briefly explains, the two new Edsel V8s were the E-400 and the E-475, each named for its lb-ft torque rating. The E-475 was built on FoMoCo’s MEL engine architecture (read more about the MEL V8 here). With a bore and stroke of 4.20 inches by 3.70 inches, it displaced 410 cubic inches and developed 345 hp. The E-400, a member of the more familiar FE engine family of 1958-76 (which included the famed 390 and 427 CID V8s) displaced 361 cubic inches and was rated at 303 hp. With a 4.05-in bore and 3.50-in stroke, it was essentially the Ford division’s 352 CID V8 with a .050 overbore.

But as things turned out, both engines proved to be one-year wonders. When Edsel sales sputtered and fell far short of their target in 1958, the product line was radically downsized to just two models for ’59 and the two Edsel-exclusive V8s were discontinued, alas. “To sensibly test the potential of these high-torque engines is something no man should miss,” the announcer declares. Video below.

 

2 thoughts on “The Most Beautiful Thing That Ever Happened to Horsepower: 1958 Edsel”

  1. Two complete engine families is crazy. They would never do that today. Its hard to understand why they did it then.

    • Not really crazy. Mustangs used three different engine families, the I6 170-200, the Windsor small block 289-302, and the FE 390-428 in 67-70, and added the Lima 429 Boss engine in 69-70.

      If Ford had of released the 1960 Edsel in 1958, it probably would have made it. The 58-59 was so quirky looking, it was doomed from the start. The 60 model though, it was a thing of beauty, just too late to save the brand.

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