Posted on 09/09/2007 6:36:38 AM PDT by shove_it
... the Model T was a piece of junk, the Yugo of its day...
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Compared to what, of its day?
How many different automobile brands did one have to pick from in 1929?
You mean like navigating Milwaukee's enormous concrete storm ditches snaking through the good ol' south-side AND successfully participating in the infamous eastbound I-94 bumper-car wars??
That what you meant by, "reasonably sane"? :o)
Thing went in & thing came out, what more could one ask?
Where's the respect for what it could do, the thing merits legendary status!
"Having the privilege of maintaining one for several years, it taught me the benefits of buying oil-dri in bulk."
What's a little leaking oil when compared to the enormous role it played on the road to your becoming a Braveman?
...a great car. ;^)
When the suspension is boosted and with bigger wheels, and it's given a better paint job, this 440 cid beauty is fun to drive.
“How many different automobile brands did one have to pick from in 1929?”
How was it “junk” compared to the alternatives that people had who couldn’t afford a Dusenberg?
The last I checked, a huge problem circa 1900 in large urban areas was that horse doo dried out on the streets, and then became “powderized” as other vehicles ran over it. The stuff then became airborne, and the cities had a fine haze of powdered horse sh*t floating in the air for all to breathe.
Prior the the start of the Stock Market fall and the depression there were literally dozens of small car makers that were making the new horseless carriage, most all were handbuilt and often were unique in the engine area like the Stanley Steamer and even electric cars. And there was the extreme class division of the day of the normal folks and the high society that had custom built luxury cars like the Cadillacs, Packards, Dusenburgs and such with air cooled and large engines like the V12 and V16.
Hey! I had one that looked just like that! The v6 got real decent mileage. I once made it from Missoula, MT to Belle Fourche, SD on a tank of fuel. I think it was the overdrive torque converter.
It put America on wheels, supercharged the nation’s economy and transformed the landscape in ways unimagined on the day the first black-only Tin Lizzy bucked and trembled off the assembly line. Well, that’s just the problem, isn’t it?
The Model T — whose mass production technique was the work of engineer William C. Klann, who had visited a slaughterhouse’s “disassembly line” — conferred to Americans the notion of automobility as something akin to natural law, a right endowed by our Creator. A century later, the consequences of putting every living soul on gas-powered wheels are piling up, from the air over our cities to the sand under our soldiers’ boots.
And by the way, with its blacksmithed body panels and crude instruments, the Model T was a piece of junk, the Yugo of its day.
In other words, the Model T was bad because it freed humanity to drive. I don’t know why they call these people progressive. If they had their way, we’d all be living in caves naked banging rocks together for tools.
To all Aspen owners, do you remember driving home in the rain making all right turns because you were afraid you might stall out in front of traffic if you made a left.
It would stall even if it was just humid. Something to do with the carburetor engineering.
As I recall, that Model T motor became the Miller racing motors in later years, albeit w/ a much different cylinder head. The lead engineer was some guy named “Offenhauser.”
I totally agree.....that’s the definition of a ‘custom car’!!!
The author should be stripped of all implements of civilization and issued a loincloth and a pointy stick.
“It would stall even if it was just humid. Something to do with the carburetor engineering.”
That little 1-barrel carb was the victim of the need to satisfy environmental concerns in an era before fuel injection became available. By this time, Mopar was almost bankrupt, and didn’t have the R&D budget to further refine the product, nor the resources to simply install a good Holly Economaster.
Most American cars of the era featured a bundle of snakes on top of the motor, as a maze of vacuum and air hoses tried to keep the thing within specs. Most exasperated redneck shade tree mechanics removed the “pollution junk”, installed a good Holly carb, bought an adapter so they could fill up with leaded fuel, and replaced that catalytic converter with a “test pipe.” There... problem fixed.
From the article: “The Model T — whose mass production technique was the work of engineer William C. Klann, who had visited a slaughterhouse’s “disassembly line” — conferred to Americans the notion of automobility as something akin to natural law, a right endowed by our Creator. A century later, the consequences of putting every living soul on gas-powered wheels are piling up, from the air over our cities to the sand under our soldiers’ boots.”
Is it possible for any of these meatheads at Time/Newsweek/NYT to write a single article without going into “blood for oil”/ Iraq War/Global Warming mode? It really ruins the article.
“the Model T was a piece of junk”
The best part of Henry Ford and his Model T was the concept of the production line paving the way for more automobiles of different makers.
(Read a biography on Henry, truly, an amazing man)
Did you know his first factory was built, in part,from Navy salvage
“Is it possible for any of these meatheads at Time/Newsweek/NYT to write a single article without going into “blood for oil”/ Iraq War/Global Warming mode? It really ruins the article.”
No.
Next issue, Time will have members of PETA write an article on the 10 best places to by a hamburger in the USA.
Wow, I'd *almost* managed to purge the memory of those things from my mind. My dad had a Marquis with one; it gave endless trouble. Refurbished units just didn't work. Finally, he bought an old Autolite "crackerbox" carb and rebuilt it, and bolted that in place of the VV unit. The big Merc ran better, was utterly reliable, and got the same or better fuel economy as with the variable venturi POS.
Not a single mention of the K-car. Amazing
Another case of the LeCar's roof not collapsing when the trucker spit on it?
My aunt had a LeBaron of about the same period that used to stall in wet weather. It had a detuned version of the 440 Wedge engine. My cousin and I found a wrecked Road Runner and pulled the ignition and intake parts off and put 'em in the LeBaron... no more problems. The Chrysler "Lean Burn" hardware was the source of the trouble, I believe.
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