I recently drove my Dad's 1910 Model T Ford. Despite the wind-in-your-hair good times and relative ease of entry and exit, there remains some drawbacks should you decide to dive into this legendary beast.
The Engine: Inline 4 displacing 177 cubic inches (2.9 Liter) of stump pulling power. How much power? Try 20 tire shredding ponies. This thing will accelerate from 0-5 in less than ten seconds! Lightening the engine is the complete lack of a starter or alternator or distributor. I did wow the crowd by starting the car "without the crank or turning the engine over in any way." This is achieved partially by luck having the engine stopped previously just past TDC on one of the cyl's. When I turned on the BAT switch, the spark plug fired and voila the engine was running!
Transmission: Planetary type with two forward speeds plus reverse. Low gear is good to about 8 MPH and then high gear is good to go up to about 45 MPH.
Braking: Nearly non-existent. No brakes on the front tires. Simple mechanically linked brakes on the rear. Test car had aftermarket "Rocky Mtn Brakes" installed that go over the drums on the back. Brake feel went from bad during normal stopping, to worse trying to brake over uneven terrain. The pedal seemed to move around independently of the floor boards.
Interior: Plush leather seating. No front doors to worry about frivolous panels, etc. No seat belts to be bothered with as well. Padding on the wooden dash appears to be made of a thin coating of varnish. At least the windshield appears to be large enough to fly through cleanly.
Controls: Bizarre. Unintuitive. Difficult. Those three words sum it up nicely. For anyone who has mastered the art of a late model manual transmission and clutch, just throw everything you know out the window. It's easy because there are no side windows.
Starting involves priming the cyl's with the ignition switch off. Crank it over a few times with the choke on. Turn the switch to BAT and if it doesn't just start automatically, you retard the spark MANUALLY on the steering column. It's like a turn signal switch but has linkage to the spark timer. This keeps the engine from wanting to kick back as you crank it and keeps your arm from breaking. Roger that. Put the throttle lever (mirror image of the spark advance but on the right side of the steering column) about half way down. Crank the engine over via the crank handle sticking out the front of the car. Crank it like you're kicking over a motorcycle, not like you're grinding something up. Once it fires, rush over and advance the spark and reduce the throttle a bit and now you're ready to drive.
Driving is counter intuitive for most of us since where you expect the gas pedal to be, the brake pedal resides. Where you normally find the brake, it's really the reverse pedal. Alas the clutch pedal is where you'd expect it. The problem is it doesn't do quite what you expect. With the parking brake lever on or in the middle position, the car is in "low gear." Driving is easy. Just press in the clutch to go. Add some throttle and there you are moving with your foot on the clutch. Let it off and you coast. With the parking brake all the way forward, you need to have your foot halfway pressing the clutch pedal in to be in neutral. All the way in is low gear. When you wind out low you let out the clutch and it shifts into high. You'd better be on flat or very little grade since it'll chug and sputter trying to drive this slow in high gear. Give it some throttle and advance the timing all the way and you are starting to move.
Chassis: The term Loose Goose comes to mind. Kind of like a slinky on wheels. Turning is challenging. Off camber is nearly impossible. Steering is imprecise with a hint of frightening. Every little turn takes effort. Staying straight takes effort!
Looks: Hard to beat. Nearly everyone waves at you. Some jump up and down pointing. Brass needs constant polishing to stay bright. Despite over 15 million of them produced, it's hard to find another one on the road.
Overall Impressions: Fun. Quirky. Retro. The thing is a blast to drive. Once you figure out the controls you're looking for a nice country road. All old guys have a Model T story to tell you.
Below is the author behind the wheel of the 1910 Model T Ford.
Today
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