Posted on 08/12/2018 6:13:12 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
The first Model T Ford is produced at the Ford plant in Detroit, MI. AKA the "tin lizzy", Ford would go on to produce over 15,000,000 of the Model T's before production ended in 1927. By the early 1920s, half of the cars in the world were Model T's.
“15,000,000 of the Model T’s before production ended in 1927”
Staggering numbers, especially for 1927.
When I got married, my neighbor drove us from the church to the reception hall in his 1925 Model T. We really had quite the show on the road with our motorcade. We were in the rumble seat waving to all the nice folks that were honking cheers to us.
Ford just rolled off the 10 millionth Mustang, since 1964, so that 15 million number is astonishing for the Model T.
Evidently, the reverse gear had more torque then the forward gears and you would sometimes see them being driven uphill backwards. https://www.history.com/topics/model-t
I remember hearing that from my grandfather. He was an excellent machinist and had a huge, fully equipped machine shop in his basement. He machined and heat treated replacement rear axle shafts for his Model T and always carried spares when driving. They were notorious for breaking.
I bet you wish he had left one for you! Here are a few for sale at, https://classics.autotrader.com/classic-cars-for-sale/ford-model_t-for-sale
They originally sold for $800 but with automation they were able to get down to $300. My family’s cell phone bills get close to that nowadays.
My grandfather would get somewhat disassembled Model Ts on the train, put them together and drive out to farms to demonstrate them. That’s how he met my grandmother.
Found a number of new T parts when we cleaned out the family home after the grandparents died. No hidden complete ones though.
Wow, nice collection of Ts for Salem there. Everything from original condition to frame off restoration to great rods.
They were driven backwards uphill because they didn’t have a fuel pump, it was gravity fed. If you went up the normal way if the hill was steep enough you’d stall.
When you buy one take me for a ride. I can’t afford ‘em.
Damn law of gravity! That’s a hard one to beat.
Nope...no toys here either. Just dreams.
Market wide open
Yeah, and I don’t think their stock price has changed much since then.
The Apple of their time.
Looking back, with industrial capacity like that, it’s no wonder we were able to crank out tanks, ships, and planes for WWII...
Even WITH the Depression...
For some reason my old man told me all these stories about model Ts, which I have never owned or driven. But the driving backwards uphill was one, especially in winter. In fact sometimes on really cold days you had to jack up the back wheel to get enough gas to flow into the engine to start it. He also told me how to properly crank it without having the crank break your thumb or your wrist, which is a thing that happened to people if they held it wrong. What I will do with this info I will never know but decades later I still have it.
That Model T starter key was a problem.
Glad they worked that out.
My dad grew up on a farm in Montana. They had a model T truck that he would drive to the one room schoolhouse starting at nine years old. As he drove along slowly, other kids would hop on. That would be in the late ‘30s and ‘early ‘40s. When I visited the farm for the summer at the same age around 1970 I remember him pointing out the hulk of it to me and telling the story. I also saw the abandoned one room school house with battered board see-saw for a playground.
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