Over on FutureCars.com, I did a review of the 1927 Ford Model T after having seen it at a classic car show recently. 1927 was the last year Ford built the Model T before moving on to the Model A. The Model T enjoyed a lot of firsts and set automotive trends for decades to come.
Here’s a snippet from that article, which you can read in full at this link.
In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T, which had been designed by his team made up of Childe Harold Wills, Joseph a Galamb, and Eugene Farkas. Although in that time period, vehicles were not designated by model year, but by model name (in Ford’s case, models were designated with an alphabetical letter, including prototypes that never saw production), we now think of the Model T as being from various build years to designate its production changes throughout its two decades. The 1927 Model T was the last year of production before it gave way to the Model A, which Ford said brought in a new era of the automobile.
The Ford Model T had several innovations and introduced, during its production, many more automotive firsts. The Model T, from its beginning, was one of the first cars to have trembler coil system for ignition (cheaper than magnetos common being used), which gave it fuel use flexibility and, though it required the use of a battery for starting, it allowed the car to be easily converted to electric lighting, which it did soon after its introduction, replacing the troublesome and dangerous acetylene standard of the time. The Model T also employed considerable use of vanadium steel, relatively new at the time, and highly durable – part of the reason thousands still ply the roads today in largely original chassis condition.
