Model T (United States of America, 1908)

The Ford Model T entered Ford’s brand new assembly line in 1908 and its production lasted nearly 2 decades. The Model T was conceived with the main purpose of better serving the interests of the middle class and that is why it is widely considered to be the world’s first affordable car.

Ford Motor Company is legendarily recognized for pioneering the automobile mass production, which made for faster production times, quicker selling rates and much lower prices for the average customers to afford a car. The American automaker dropped the one-by-one hand crafting of vehicles in favour of a new automated assembly line. The Ford Model T was the first vehicle ever to be produced through this revolutionary (for that time) type of assembly in which the cars are mass-produced and made out of transposable parts.

The company started producing the ‘T’ at their Piquette factory in Detroit, Michigan, but the success of the automated assembly line and the ever increasing demand allowed for this car to begin being produced in a lot more countries aside from the United States. In an effort to serve the largest possible amount of population worldwide, Ford began producing this car at other plants that were set in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Brazil and Argentina.

The more cars sold the more profits and the larger margin for paying higher wages to the factory workers, which in turn results in better productivity and ever increasing revenues. For all this, it is no wonder that the Ford Model T is now clearly and internationally seen as the 20th century’s most important and influential car, even though its production ceased in 1927.

The Ford Model T has a front engine and rear-wheel drive arrangement. Its engine was a 2.9-liter unit that produced 20.2 hp and allowed for a top speed of 40 to 45 mi/h (64–72 km/h). The customer could either use gasoline or ethanol on his Model T because this car’s engine runs on both.

2-speed and then 3-speed planetary gear transmissions were used throughout the Model T’s lifespan. However, on that epoch one of the ‘speeds’ was the reverse.

Steel unibody.   Platform (no data)   Suspension Front and rear live axles (not independent) with transversely mounted semi-elliptical spring in each.   Steering (no data)   Brakes Drum brakes all around and band brakes on the outside of the rear drums that are operated by the parking brake handle.

To work on the Ford Model T’s bodywork, Henry Ford was joined by designers Childe Harold Wills, Joseph A. Galamb and Eugene Farkas, along with other engineering team members, such as Harry Love, Gus Degner, C. J. Smith and Peter Martin. These men made the Model T available in a wide variety of body types: as a 2-door coupe, a 2-door convertible, a 2-door touring car, a 2-door roadster (also as pickup), a 2-door ton truck, 2-door and 4-door wagons and as a 4-door sedan.

Originally, all Model T copies were painted in black but other colours were available as well in the years between 1908 and 1914 and again during the car’s last two years of production (1926–27). Henry Ford’s choice on black was due to the black paint’s faster drying, which itself allows for a quicker finishing of each car and an overall quicker production. The T’s body panels benefitted from Ford’s use of rather sophisticated technology, as they were made out of vanadium steel, which is a tremendously long-lasting material.

The Ford Model T is internationally – and notoriously – regarded as the 20th century’s most influential automobile in the world, as many studies and polls state.