The Forgotten Model T Sports Cars 

Of course he was in the German neighborhood. Haha 😂

I drive a hotrod Willys Jeep. Not far from a T Ford, but more capable.

Yes, I enjoyed the tie in too.

Great video i have fun in 200 euro cars

The difference there is that cyclekarts are gussied up go carts and deliberately kept ridiculously slow

The Model A took its styling cues from very successful Lincoln designs.

One must learn 'Henry's dance' to drive a T Ford.

The good news is that modern car thieves ignore the car, because they don't know how to drive.

These days, most car thieves don't know how to drive ANY manual transmission. The only car I've ever had stolen was a 5-speed, and they pushed it about 600 ft down an the alley before abandoning it. I expect similar hijinks with my Model T.

Yes, yes, and yes some more.

Not to forget that the prohibition in the twenties has increased the need for faster cars for the boot legger's racing against the police.

Yes, I actually live in Oregon and found out about that race recently but it looks like it was a few months ago.

Not really though, all these things you mentioned aren't what's at the core of an suv. SUV's evolved from the pickup truck by making the bed part enclosed. that's the Utility part in SUV. Model t's, unless you get the literal pickup truck variant. don't have any meaningful storage trunk. It's really just a passenger car. Even nowadays, where SUV's evolved to heavy big luxury cars, that's also not what the T was, the model T was light, simple and cheap. also the model T was the least expensive car of its time. btw, no one gets an SUV for the fuel economy, hahaha.

@@DrTheRich T’s were not the least expensive cars of their time. They weren’t expensive comparatively, to the high priced luxury vehicles that existed up to that time, but they were not the cheapest. The essence of an SUV is not a big rear end (many now do not have that), and the modern ones didn’t evolve from pickups. The modern ones have multiple traceable family origins, station wagons, jeeps, small commercial vehicles, but not pickups. The essence of an SUV is high ground clearance and off-road ability. That’s what the S stands for, sport. T’s were designed with high ground clearance and off-road ability. People liked being up in the air, good visibility, away from the road mud, on eye level with horse carriages, and above their fellow human beings. There were cheaper cars then that didn’t have those features. They were also designed for 4 passengers or a 5th with a squeeze, unlike many of the 2 passenger vehicles of the time. That’s the U, utility. Many owners would haul stuff in the back seats, and they did have trunks. People back then just didn’t have as much s- - - as they do nowadays.

@@PRH123 tell me, which car of the time outbit the $300 you could get a model T for? "and the modern ones didn’t evolve from pickups" lol. modern suv's evolved from traditional suv's like the Ford Bronco which evolved from pickup trucks and possibly ww2 willys (which were still designed for their useful rear end. Yes they added in all kinds of stuff from other car types to make them more luxurious and comfortable, especially european ones. But that doesn't mean they evolved from that. "family origins, station wagons, jeeps, small commercial vehicles" lol, all if the once you mention have big rear ends for hauling stuff, what a way to defeat your own argument in the same breath. The idea of an SUV is that it's a workers vehicle but designed for casual civilian activities like sport, holiday. The model T was designed as a passenger car (BTW nearly half of the T's made were 2 or 3 seaters) without cargo space, with exception of the pickup variant. The truck version the model TT was designed as the utility workers variant meant for hauling. Even it's successor the model A (i own a Tudor) has no cargo space of it's own (except the business coupe) and you have to hang a separate trunk of the back. The high seat position wasn't a conscious design choice, but a convention coming from horse carriages. and a result of setting the seats on top of the straight beam frame. All cars of the time had seats on top of the frame. then you need to call all cars SUVs, which makes the word SUV loose it's meaning. In the 1930s seats started lowering, then SUV's started raising it up again. They weren't designed for off-road... they were designed for roads that were basically indiscernible from a field. It was just a necessity of the time if you wanted a car that would not be stuck inside the city's hardened or paved roads.

@@DrTheRich just Google the history of the Suburban for example…. nothing to do with pickups.. the Bronco was a purpose built off-road vehicle that originally had almost no cargo space…. Review this video of Ford’s testing of the T’s off-road abilities…. For which they specifically designed it…. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m1rlyl8VZFM.htmlsi=_gaWGzlhU53kXlL5 The T didn’t cost 300 when it debuted, it was almost 900…. it was many years before the price got down that low… Henry definitely saw it as also a working vehicle, the original concept was to allow it to run on alcohol, which farmers could distill themselves…

@@PRH123 "Review this video of Ford’s testing of the T’s off-road abilities…. For which they specifically designed it…" Just because they tested it afterwards, doesn't mean they designed it with that purpose from the start. Again, most roads were unpaved, without a vehicle with "offroad capabilities" as we call it today, you wouldn't get anywhere. it took a mere 5 years of the model t production for the price to already be at 360. out of it's nearly 20 year existence, i would call that a lot of years. Still you didn't show me any cheaper car. in 1909 other cars were also more expensive than later. Working as in getting people around. If he truly saw it as a working utility vehicle he would have given it cargo space. Oh wait, he did, it's called the model T pickup, the model T delivery van and all model TT trucks. The basic model T was a passenger car, always meant as such. the running on alcohol thing was because every car manufacturer at the time was still figuring out the best most practical fuel. Alcohol could be gotten from your local pharmacy or utility store if need be. The world wasn't populated with gas station pumps yet. Either way, while you could put pure ethanol in the model T engine, it was never designed for it, the idea was never a serious consideration for the engine design was finalized. You can find debunks of this myth everywhere. Yes the Model T was made ready for rural living, but not for rural work. Farmers also needed to get to church on Sunday.

I consider model ts to be equal to honda civics. Ubiquitous econo car that young guys want to weaponize against more expensive cars. But often they just change the appearance. As a side note, most ohv conversion kits were garbage.

I try telling people stuff like this

At that time the Model T was also much more expensive to produce than it would become in later years. Ford was still trying to figure out the mass-production aspect. By improving his production techniques over the years and by optimizing the car's design Ford was able to pump out the T at much faster rates while massively reducing the price as well.

You aren't far off if at all. Between 1908 and the early twenties inflation nearly double prices, in other words, the value of the dollar fell by half. At the same time the price of a Ford fell by half. In other words, after 15 years the Model T cost about 1/4 what it originally cost, in terms of buying power. So it cost about $7000 in today's money.

Cyclecars would be street legal yes. My understanding is that early on cyclecars were essentially small, lightweight street legal and racecars using thin tires (think early Morgans). Today the cyclekart movement is sort of imitating that early movement, and most cyclekarts are meant to be modeled after specific iconic racecars

​@@bartscarstoriesCyclecars were basically Proto- Subcompacts, much smaller than a full size car like the Model T, often so narrow that they only seat two people in tandem configuration (like the 1950s Messerschmitt Bubblecars) and more often than not powered by Motorcycle engines. They were the definition of a 4-wheeled Motorcycle. The advent of mass production with cars like the Ford T, Austin 7 or Citroen Type C made them obsolete as there were now proper cars that were much more usable and practical but just as affordable if not cheaper by the mid-1920s

😊

lots are still around, hidden in peoples barns under layers of dust.

I think he misread it, ford had a distaste for 6 cylinder engines, that's what edsel used in his speedster, and henry didn't like it.

@@DrTheRich Henry invested a lot of time and effort in an 'X-8' configuration that failed.

The 999 was as pure as a hot rod could be, and it's driver was Henry Ford.

Yes exactly, why aren't people getting this. I'm not saying he never had sporting interests, but when it came to the model T, he really believed he'd created the only car that would ever exist going forward, and he had no desire to make it anything but a mass produced all arounder.

@@bartscarstories So then Henry Ford only saw the utility side of an automobile?

@@MustangsTrainsMowers I'm not sure he would have been against making a sports car later on, and he did prior to the T, but with the model T it seems that's all he cared about.

@@MustangsTrainsMowers Yes. It took his son to design the next car, the model A to also take fashion into account.

@@bartscarstories I think because it comes off a bit confusing in your video. It sounds like Henry personally had a dislike for any race cars. But I think what you meant was, Henry didn't like the idea of his car company making race cars.

Though semi accurate.

Ford was a hot rodder at heart. He was designer, engineer, and driver of the 999.

@@-oiiio-3993 Henry Only Raced ONCE With 999. His Goal Was To Attract INVESTORS. He Never Raced AGAIN...

@@davemckolanis4683 You sure SHOUT a lot. Show references stating that Ford only raced once in his life.

@@-oiiio-3993 Check The NUMEROUS Films And Written Material About Henry's Entire Life. And YOU TELL ME How Many Races Over How Many YEARS He Was A Driver. Henry HIMSELF Even Stated: " I Never Thought Anything Of Racing, But The Public Refused To Consider The Automobile In Any Light Other Than A Fast Toy. Therefore Later, (After Founding Of The Detroit Auto Company), We HAD TO Race". He Was Also Reluctant To Produce The V8 Engine For 1932, (That Even Had Problems When They First Came Out), When Chevrolet Already Had One Marketed In 1917. AND He Was Also Reluctant To Market A Straight Six Engine As Well. This WAS NOT The Attitude That A High Performance Race Enthusiast Would Have. Henry Was An Industrialist Focused On Innovation And Cost Efficiency. Including Farm Tractors Because Of His Farm Life Up Bringing. Racing Cars WAS NOT Part Of His DNA...

@@-oiiio-3993 always funny when people claim to know the heart of someone they heard about in a few youtube videos. What even does it mean to be a "Hot Rodder" the word wasn't even used before the 1940s... His 999 were custom race cars, not a modification to an existing car, thus it's not a hot rod, which by definition is modifying an exiting car to be "hotter" You wouldn't call F1 car makers hot rodders, and an F1 car a hot rod now would you?