SOMETIMES I WAKE UP in indicate the horsepower or number of the middle of the night, get by Dave Cole cylinders or something, but with Ford, up to test the plumbing, and go the first cars were just called Model A. back to bed, but I don't drop off to Withinfive years , Ford had worked its way sleep right away. The older I get, the more through the alphabet clear up to the Model S! S is the often this happens. As I drift back to sleep, my mind 19th letter in the alphabet, but this doesn't mean that wanders through all sorts of things—solutions to Ford had built 19 models by 1908. The Model S was the world's problems, things I should have done and only Ford's ninth model. They had skipped about didn't, or things I did I shouldn't have and that sort half of the letters on the way to S. of thing—but one night, I got to thinking how Henry In their first five years, Ford had brought out Ford really should have kept going through the al­ their phabet with his model designations, right up through • Model A, a 2-cylinder, 8-horsepower car, built in 1937. It would have made much better sense than 1903 and '04, what he did. It's really kind of interesting to consider • Model B, a 4-cylinder, 24-horsepower car, built in what he could've done, should've done, and didn't. 1904 and '05, I'll admit that by 1938, the proliferation of mod­ • Model C, a 2-cylinder, 10-horsepower job, built els had gotten to the point where a new system was from late 1904 thru '05, called for, and that part makes good sense. A 1938 • Model E, a delivery car that used mostly Model C Ford V-8 with the 85-horsepower engine was called parts in the chassis, Model 81 A, with the "8" being the last digit of 1938, • Model F, a 2-cylinder, 16-horsepower car built in the "1" being the type of engine, and "A" standing 1905, for Passenger Car. (I've always figured that "1" • Model K, a 6-cylinder, 40-horsepower luxury car, was actually the last digit of "221," the cubic-inch from 1906 to '08, displacement of that engine, but maybe it isn't.) • Model N, a 4-cylinder runabout, built 1906-'08, Well, you're familiar with that system of designating • Model R, a fancier 4-cylinder runabout, 1907-'08, various models of Ford cars and trucks, so we won't and dwell on that, but let's look at what might have been • Model S, another 4-cylinder runabout made only a better plan between 1927 and 1937. in 1908. When the Ford Mo­ As may be seen by tor Company went into the construction dates, the business of build­ some of these models ing automobiles in mid- were in production at 1903, their first product the same time. One ad­ was called the Model A. meFOAD vertisement (next page) Many other auto mak­ indicates that Models ers began with Model K, N and R were all A, too. In this fledgling being offered by Ford auto industry, model dealers in April, 1907. designations were pret­ There was no Model ty simple. Some used D, nor any for G, H, I, numbers; others used J, L, M, O, P, or Q, ei­ letters, and among those ther. Ford had used nine who used letters, it was letters but had skipped common to begin with ten by 1908. What utter A and run through the profligacy! Of the ten alphabet. Some manu­ • Like many auto makers, Ford gave letter designa­ letters for which Ford facturers appended a tions to its various models, beginning with the Model made no model, George number to the letter to A in 1903. From a period advertisement. DeAngelis wrote in one March/April 2011 23 Famous Model "K' Famous Mod«l "N" Six-cylinder car, Touring or Runabout Four-cylinder Runabout FORD ( Model "K," 6-Cylinder Touring- Car. .$2,800 1907 ^Moael "K>" "Six-Forty" Runabout.. . 2,800JF.O.B . I INF ) Model "N>" famous 4-Cyl Runabout. . 600 I Detroit L.11XE, JMode l «Rj» 4-Cyl Runabout "DeLuxe" 750 FORD MOTOR €0. 5 PlqucllC Ave. DETROIT, MICH. ! By 1907, four years into the auto game, Ford had raced through the alphabet clear up to R, and offered three models that spring— "K," "N" and "R." From an ad in Motor Field magazine, April, 1907. of his "Ford Facts" columns for Antique Automobile then became how to build them in sufficient volume magazine (the March-April, 1973, issue) that it seems to satisfy the demand. Ford and his staff were up to they "never progressed beyond the drawing board."* that challenge. They devised and implemented mass This statement suggests that Ford gave some thought production techniques, established assembly plants to introducing ten models that were never actually all over the country, then all over the world, and just built, and wasn't skipping letters intentionally. It also kept it up until the Model T Ford was the best known suggests that Henry Ford was searching for just the and most numerous automobile in the world, with right model to offer to the public. over fifteen million built. Not until 1927, nineteen And he finallyhi t it with the Model T. That one years after the Model T got started, did Ford finally turned out to be just the right mix of simplicity, util­ realize the car had become obsolete, quit production ity, and sturdiness that would appeal to would-be and gear up for a new Ford to replace it. motorists, and when it was introduced on October 1, Of course, the 1927 Model T was a lot different 1908, the whole tenor of Ford's operations changed. from the 1909 car introduced late in 1908, but basi­ No longer would the company dither from one model cally it was the same model. With Ford, all it took to to the next, offering two or three different ones each retain the same model designation was the design of year and scattering unused letters right and left along the engine. Bodies could be modernized from time the way. The Model T was the perfect car for the to time, fenders might change and other parts could times*Georg,e anDeAngelisd it sol,d wh welo retirel frod mafte thr e3 9start year.s Thwithe Forprobled as ma be updated, but as long as the motor was the same, tool and die maker and supervisor of technical illustration, later it was the same model. Go through a 1927 Model T became editor of the Model A Restorers Club magazine and an Ford parts book and you'll be amazed at how many eminent scholar on Ford history. With Edward P. Francis, he wrote The Early Ford V-8 as Henry Built It, the production facts book parts in the list were used from 1909 to 1927, includ­ that many Ford V-8'ers use today. ing most of the engine parts. In fact, in the "Motor" section, the firstite m listed is Part No. 2990B, motor assembly—less starter, year: 1909-27. Dozens of other parts were used on the Model T from begin­ ning to end, too. The car that replaced the Model T was introduced on December 2, 1927, as the new Model A. To be consistent with the Ford alphabet series that began in 1903, the new car should have been the Model U, but George DeAngelis explains in that 1973 "Ford Facts" article that "Henry Ford decided to produce an entirely new car, ... so new that he • When Ford got to Model T, they settled down, 'would wipe the slate clean and start all over again learned to make ever more of them ever faster, and with Model A!" It had been nearly twenty years kept the T in production for 19 years. This 1911 since Ford's alphabet series had gotten stuck on T, Model T was seen in Ford Times magazine. and only automotive historians recalled the nine 24 March/April 2011 models made by Ford prior to the T. So when the New Ford came out as the Model A, hardly anyone V, neatly extending the line begun in 1903. It's almost too good to be true! But that's not what they called it. The new V-8 was called Model 18. Say what? Ford had never used numbers to designate models before, and why would the series start with 18 anyway? Some writers, trying to make some sense out of it, have asserted that "18" stood for Ford's first eight-cylinder engine, or that the "1" was the last digit of 1931, the year work began on the V-8, and "8," the number of cylinders. That's possible, but it is more likely that 18 was just an arbitrary choice, the job • The Dec, 1927 Ford Dealer and Service Field magazine carriednumbe r assigned to the design that the "New Ford Car Announcement . . ." Ford men anxious to see went into production. So was Model the first new model in 19 years had only to turn to page 7 to get 40, the designation for the 1933 and this view of the 1928 Model A Tudor Sedan. The name, "Model A," '34 Ford V-8 passenger cars. That appears frequently in this and later issues but is not explained nor was not Ford's fourth engine with commented upon. no cylinders! But by 1936, Model 68 for V-8 passenger cars makes some questioned the name, or made any comment that itsense—th e "6" is the last digit of "1936," and "8," was out of sequence as a model designation. the number of cylinders. It works with the 1937 Ford But if Henry Ford had stuck with his original plan cars with the 85 h.p. engine, too. They are called and had called the new 4-cylinder, 40-horsepower Model 78. But all these cars with the 221-cubic-inch 1928 car his Model U, just think what wonderful V-8, clear up to 1942, whatever their numerical des­ sales slogans would have resulted: ignation, have engine numbers, or serial numbers, "The Model U Ford is the model for you!" that start with that 18-, the original model designa­ "You and your JJ!" tion issued in 1932. Ford's model numbering gets all "The Model U Ford is the model you want!" mixed up in these years, and no one outside of a Ford Well, U could have—er, you could have all sorts parts department ever paid much attention to it. In of fun with those false cognates, U the mid-'30's, everyone knew what and you. Ford didn't think of that, a Model A Ford was, as thousands apparently, nor did he consider that were on the road, and they well Model A rhymes with Chevrolet, the remembered the venerable Model low-priced car by General Motors T, but Model 18, as a name, never that overtook Ford as the #1 auto caught on. A guy would describe his make in the U.S. while Ford was car as a Ford V-8, not a Model Any­ shut down and tooling up for the thing, and everyone would know Model A. what he meant. All the more reason Henry Ford seems to have had to have named this series of cars the fond hopes that his new Model A Model V! would last as long as his Model T Ford had one more letter designa­ had, but it was not to be. It took tion following the 1928-'31 Model nineteen years for the Model T to A, the improved 4-cylinder Model become well and truly obsolete; B for 1932. It was improved, all only four for the Model A. Motorists right—it cranked out 50 horsepower expected stylish new models every compared to the Model A's 40, but year by the 1930's, and other makes the size of the bore, stroke and cu­ were providing them. To stay com­ • When the Ford V-8 was an­ bic-inch displacement remained the petitive, Ford had to come up with nounced in Ford News maga­ same, so it could easily have contin­ something brand-new for 1932, and zine for April, 1932, its of­ ued as the Improved Model U. The you know what that was: the V-8! ficial designation, Model 18, only other choice would have been Obviously, had Ford called the 4- was not mentioned; instead, to make it the Model W, to continue bangers of 1928 to 1931 the Model it was described as the 8-Cyl- Henry's original alphabet series, but U, the next new model in the line inder Ford, or the Ford V-8. it doesn't make good sense. We say would have been the Model V in Ford never tried to popularize that letter is a Double-U, but we 1932. What serendipity, to have the the V-8 model numbers as write or type it as a Double-V. Ap­ new V-8 introduced as Ford's Model they had the Model T and A. plied to the 1932 4-cylinder engine, March/April 2011 25 • The first use of the small V-8-60 engine in England was in what was otherwise the regu­ lar 1935 Ford V-8. They called this the V-8 (£16 10s. Tax) Touring Saloon. A better name would have been Model X. From The Ford Times, Oct., 1935.

with just half the number of cylinders as the V-8 (or better sense than its official designation as Model 54 Model V) it hardly makes sense to call that engine when it had four main bearings, then Model 52 when a Double-Anything. So let's just skip the W. After it was redesigned to have only three. all, when the Ford Motor Company was young, they Ford's Model Y was another little engine de­ skipped plenty of letters! signed in Dearborn but intended for British and European manufacture. In this case, we don't have This leaves us with three remaining letters of to make some latter-day assignment of the letter, Y, the alphabet, and three engines the company to the little four-cylinder 57-cubic-inch engine that developed by 1937 that could have easily, and cranked out just 22 brake horsepower (or,figured th e sensibly, made use of all three. Look at this: British way, a little under 8). When the car and the Once Henry Ford got the Ford V-8 into produc­ engine were under development in Dearborn, the job tion, he fairly well forgot about pursuing his earlier was called the Model 19, but in July, 1932, Sir Per- plan to develop an X-8, on which he had worked off cival Perry, head of Ford Motor Company, Ltd., pe­ and on during the 1920's. It was to have four pairs of titioned Ford in the U.S. to let him rename the car as cylinders sticking out in four directions, but it seems Model Y, and he was allowed to do so. Why Y? It's there was always some problem with it, and it never unclear. Even Sam Roberts, who wrote an exhaus­ was produced. Of course, it was called the X-8 be­ tive, 224-page book on the Ford Model Y—Henry's cause it had eight cylinders arranged in an X pattern, Car for Europe, in 2001, can only speculate on why just as the V-8 got its name from its two banks of Y was better than 19. four cylinders each connected to a common crank­ Whatever the reason, the Model Y seems to be the shaft, resulting in a V-shape, looking end on at it. sole official model designation to continue Ford's But by 1932, the V-8 was in production and the original alphabet series. And it's true that the Model X-8 was on a shelf in a dusty warehouse, yet the let­ Y was developed in 1932, earlier than the V-8-60, ter X was still up for grabs in Ford's alphabet series. which ought to have been called the Model X, so It could just as well have been used to designate the it's out of sequence chronologically. This isn't very little 136-cubic-inch V-8 engine known as the V-8- serious, though. In the early days of the company, 60 in the U.S., as the 22 H.R V-8 in England, and as Henry Ford himself did not maintain strict chrono­ the 13 C.V in France—the engine studied in three logical accuracy in issuing model letters. George V-8 Times articles in DeAngelis, in that 1987 and '88, and "Ford Facts" article restudied in the last cited above, tells how two issues for 2006 the decision to replace when we found details the Model A with the about the early design Model C was made with four main bear­ on August 22, 1904, ings instead of three. while the decision to This engine was de­ produce the 4-cylinder signed in Dearborn, Model B was made on but was intended for September 19 of that manufacture in Eu­ year, nearly a month rope, so most of the after the Model C re­ first six thousand or placed the A. so American-built en­ Ford developed gines were exported one more engine prior to England or France, to 1938, when the en­ and thus that X could • Although it was officially called the Model Y Ford, the tire model designation have signified EXport. British usually called it the 8 H.P. Ford, or, after 1934, scheme was revised It does seem to make the Popular Ford. and modernized, and 26 March/April 2011 • Later, the British built cars just the right size for the V-8-60, which they called the Ford V-8 "22" (for its rated horsepower) From The Ford Times, March, 1939.

really got stuck on that letter, K. Three V-12's of different sizes should have rated three distinct model designations, but they all shared that K, one way or another, and it was a retro­ grade movement besides. The Model L should have been followed by Models "~" M, N, and O, but Lincoln went backwards instead. we have one more letter of the alphabet left to as­ And they went back even further when they sign. The letter, of course, is Z, and the engine is entered the medium-price field with the Lincoln- the Lincoln-Zephyr V-12, developed in 1935 for the Zephyr for 1936 and called it the Model H. Really, introduction of that new make in the medium-price the only similarity between the Zephyr's V-12 and field as a 1936 model. What could be more appropri­ the big Model K was their use of twelve cylinders ate than "Z" for Zephyr? arranged in a V In other details and specifications, it Unfortunately, nobody thought about that, and the was built just like the Ford V-8, but with two more new Lincoln-Zephyr was introduced as the Model H. cylinders on each bank; it even used a lot of Ford V-8 This wasn't part of Ford's alphabet; it was sort of a parts. It was as much a Ford engine as it was a Lin­ part of Lincoln's, which started in the middle of the coln, and thus could havefinished u p Henry Ford's alphabet and ran backwards. When introduced by alphabet neatly as Model Z. Henry Leland in 1920 as a 1921 model, the all-new Well, of course it's all pointless speculation now, Lincoln was called the Model L, presumably for 75 years later, but it's kind of fun to consider what Leland or Lincoln. Leland's company failed in the Ford could have done to complete his alphabet se­ postwar recession of 1921; Ford bought the busi­ ries, and what good sense most of those latter desig­ ness and still owns Lincoln today, almost ninety nations, from U to Z, would have made. V years later. Until 1930, Lincoln under Ford retained the Model L designa­ tion; then they did such extensive im­ provement in the Lincoln V-8 that its horsepower was raised from 90 to 120 for 1931. They also lengthened the wheelbase from 136 to 145 inches. This rated a new model designation, Model K, for the chassis, while the V-8 engine continued the Model L series. This strange dichotomy con­ tinued in 1932, with the last Lincoln V-8 until the 1949 cars came out, but 1932 also saw thefirst o f the Lincoln V-12's, which all had Model K desig­ nations, some with suffixes and some without. They offered the 448-cubic- inch V-12 in 1932 and '33 as Model KB, a 382-cubic-inch V-12 in 1933 as Model KA, then replaced both in 1934 with a 414-cubic-inch V-12 that was called either a KA or a KB depending on wheelbase, then just • Z is for Zephyr, or should have been, but the official designation Model K from 1935 to the end of big of the new Lincoln-Zephyr in 1936 was Model H. Neither Ford nor Lincoln production in 1940. Lincoln Lincoln ever explained why they called it that. Factory photo. March/April 2011 27