[Special Coupe Frank]

I don't know if the lack of a Depression would have changed Ford's path all that much... other low priced cars were continuing to make improvements... had the stock market not crashed, the economic prosperity (real or apparent) enjoyed by the middle and working classes would have probably continued, and automakers would have been catering to that market...

I don't know that Ford would have had any additional slack-time to "perfect" the V-8...

In a way, the Model A was continued thru 1934, when Ford made the last of their four-cylinder cars for the US, until the 9N tractor-based four in 1940.

From a marketing & engineering development standpoint, Ford should probably replaced the Model T sometime between 1918 and 1922.. had that been the case, the sucessor car (let's call it the Model A, just for the sake of this discussion), would probably have been made up until 1930-32, with the eventual replacement by the V-8.

By 1931, many low to mid priced marques were offering eights: Dodge Brothers, De Soto, Pontiac, Oakland, Willys, even the Ford-bracket Essex...

Chevrolet kind of "pulled a Ford" by developing their six, and then clinging to it for 25 years ( granted, there were a couple of revisions during that era ).

I don't think it was that Ford introduced the V-8 too late or too soon; I think it's that they continued to make the Model T long after it was obsolete.