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 Within five 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 finally hit 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 first item 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.