A V8 engine has 8 cylinders.
The name describes both the cylinder count and their arrangement. A V8 has two banks of four cylinders set at an angle to each other, with both banks connected to a common crankshaft. The V-shaped layout makes eight cylinders fit into a shorter engine block than a comparable straight-eight design.
V8 engines have been used in cars, aircraft, boats, motorcycles, and industrial equipment. The first known V8, the Antoinette 8V, was built in France from 1904 for applications including speedboats, cars, and aircraft. Cadillac’s 1914 L-head V8 became the first V8 produced in significant quantities for road cars, while Ford’s 1932 Flathead V8 helped make the configuration widely available in affordable vehicles.
A V8’s cylinder count does not determine every other feature. V8s may use overhead valves or overhead camshafts, and they can have different displacements, firing orders, crankshaft designs, and bank angles. Most road-car V8s traditionally used a 90-degree cross-plane crankshaft for smoother operation, while some performance engines use a lighter flat-plane crankshaft for faster revving and a distinct exhaust sound.