The Model T was designed by
Childe Harold Wills, and Hungarian immigrants
Joseph A. Galamb (main engineer) and
Eugene Farkas. Henry Love, C. J. Smith, Gus Degner and
Peter E. Martin were also part of the team, as were Galamb's fellow Hungarian immigrants Gyula Hartenberger and Károly Balogh. Collectors today sometimes classify Model Ts by build years and refer to these as "
model years", thus labeling the first Model Ts as 1909 models. This is a retroactive classification scheme; the concept of model years as understood today did not exist at the time. Even though
design revisions occurred during the car's two decades of production, the company gave no particular name to any of the revised designs; all of them were called simply "Model T".
Engine The Model T has a front-mounted
inline four-cylinder engine, producing , for a top speed of . According to Ford Motor Company, the Model T had fuel economy of . The engine was designed to run on
gasoline, although it was able to run on
kerosene or
ethanol, although the decreasing cost of gasoline and the later introduction of
Prohibition made ethanol an impractical fuel for most users. The engines of the first 2,447 units were cooled with water pumps; the engines of unit 2,448 and onward, with a few exceptions prior to around unit 2,500, were cooled by
thermosiphon action. The
ignition system used in the Model T was an unusual one, with a low-voltage
magneto incorporated in the flywheel, supplying alternating current to
trembler coils to drive the
spark plugs. This was closer to that used for stationary
gas engines than the expensive high-voltage
ignition magnetos that were used on some other cars. This ignition also made the Model T more flexible as to the quality or type of fuel it used. The system did not need a starting battery, since proper hand-cranking would generate enough current for starting. Electric lighting powered by the
magneto was adopted in 1915, replacing
acetylene gas flame lamp and oil lamps, but electric starting was not offered until 1919. The Model T engine was produced for replacement needs as well as stationary and marine applications until 1941, well after production of the Model T ended. The
Fordson Model F tractor engine, that was designed about a decade later, was very similar to, but larger than, the Model T engine.
Transmission and drive train The Model T is a
rear-wheel drive vehicle. Its
transmission is a
planetary gear type known (at the time) as "three speed". In today's terms it is considered a two-speed, because one of the three speeds is reverse. The Model T's transmission is controlled with three floor-mounted
pedals, a revolutionary feature for its time, and a lever mounted to the road side of the driver's seat. The
throttle is controlled with a lever on the
steering wheel. The left-hand pedal is used to engage the transmission. With the floor lever in either the mid position or fully forward and the pedal pressed and held forward, the car enters low gear. When held in an intermediate position, the car is in neutral. If the left pedal is released, the Model T enters high gear, but only when the lever is fully forward – in any other position, the pedal only moves up as far as the central neutral position. This allows the car to be held in neutral while the driver cranks the engine by hand. The car can thus cruise without the driver having to press any of the pedals. In the first 800 units, reverse is engaged with a lever; all units after that use the central pedal, which is used to engage reverse gear when the car is in neutral. •
Cotton –
Cotton woven linings were the original type fitted and specified by Ford. Generally, the cotton lining is "kinder" to the drum surface, with damage to the drum caused only by the retaining rivets scoring the drum surface. Although this in itself did not pose a problem, a dragging band resulting from improper adjustment caused overheating of the transmission and engine, diminished power, and – in the case of cotton linings – rapid destruction of the band lining. •
Wood – Wooden linings were originally offered as a "longer life" accessory part during the life of the Model T. They were a single piece of steam-bent wood and metal wire, fitted to the normal Model T transmission band. These bands give a very different feel to the pedals, with much more of a "bite" feel. The sensation is of a definite "grip" of the drum and seemed to noticeably increase the feel, in particular of the brake drum.
Aftermarket transmissions and drives During the Model T's production run, particularly after 1916, more than 30 manufacturers offered auxiliary transmissions or drives to substitute for, or enhance, the Model T's drivetrain gears. Some offered overdrive for greater speed and efficiency, while others offered underdrives for more
torque (often incorrectly described as "power") to enable hauling or pulling greater loads. Among the most noted were the Ruckstell two-speed rear axle, and transmissions by Muncie, Warford, and Jumbo. Aftermarket transmissions generally fit one of four categories: •
Replacement transmission – usually a sliding gear/selective transmission, intended as a direct replacement for Ford's planetary-gear transmission. The old nomenclature for tire size changed from measuring the outer diameter to measuring the rim diameter so (rim diameter) × (tire width) wheels has about the same outer diameter as clincher tires. All tires in this time period used an
inner tube to hold the pressurized air;
tubeless tires were not generally in use until much later.
Wheelbase is and standard track width was – track could be obtained on special order, "for Southern roads," identical to
the pre-Civil War track gauge for many railroads in the former
Confederacy. The standard 56-inch track being very near the inch
standard railroad track gauge, meant that Model Ts could be, and frequently were, fitted with flanged wheels and used as motorized
railway vehicles or
"speeders". The availability of a version meant the same could be done on the few remaining Southern railways – these being the only nonstandard lines remaining, except for a few narrow-gauge lines of various sizes. Although a Model T could be adapted to run on track as narrow as gauge (Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington RR, Maine has one), this was a more complex alteration.
Colors By 1918, half of all the cars in the U.S. were Model Ts. In his autobiography, Ford reported that in 1909 he told his management team, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." However, in the first years of production from 1908 to 1913, the Model T was
not available in black, but rather only in gray, green, blue, and red. Green was available for the touring cars, town cars, coupes, and
Landaulets. Gray was available for the town cars only and red only for the touring cars. By 1912, all cars were being painted midnight blue with black fenders. Only in 1914 was the "any color so long as it is black" policy finally implemented. It is often stated Ford suggested the use of black from 1914 to 1925 due to the low cost, durability, and faster drying time of black paint in that era. There is no evidence that black dried any faster than any other dark varnishes used at the time for painting, but
carbon black pigment was indeed one of the cheapest (if not the cheapest) available, and dark color of
gilsonite, a form of bitumen making cheap metal paints of the time durable, limited the (final) color options to dark shades of maroon, blue, green or black. At that period Ford used two similar types of the so-called
Japan black paint, one as a basic coat applied directly to the metal and another as a final finish. Paint choices in the American automotive industry, as well as in others (including locomotives, furniture, bicycles, and the rapidly expanding field of electrical appliances), were shaped by the development of the
chemical industry. These included the disruption of dye sources during
World War I and the advent, by the mid-1920s, of new
nitrocellulose lacquers that were faster-drying and more scratch-resistant and obviated the need for multiple coats. Understanding the choice of paints for the Model T era and the years immediately following requires an understanding of the contemporaneous chemical industry. During this era, entire automobiles (including thousands of Model Ts) were hacked apart by their owners and reconfigured into custom machinery permanently dedicated to a purpose, such as
homemade tractors and ice saws. Dozens of
aftermarket companies sold
prefab kits to facilitate the T's conversion from car to tractor. The Model T had been around for a decade before the
Fordson tractor became available (1917–18), and many Ts were converted for field use. (For example,
Harry Ferguson, later famous for his hitches and tractors, worked on Eros Model T tractor conversions before he worked with Fordsons and others.) During the next decade, Model T tractor conversion kits were harder to sell, as the Fordson and then the
Farmall (1924), as well as other light and affordable tractors, served the farm market. But during the
Depression (1930s), Model T tractor conversion kits had a resurgence, because by then used Model Ts and junkyard parts for them were plentiful and cheap. Like many popular car engines of the era, the Model T engine was also used on home-built aircraft (such as the
Pietenpol Sky Scout) and
motorboats. During World War I, the Model T was heavily used by the
Allies in different roles and configurations, such as
staff cars, light cargo trucks, light
vans, light patrol cars,
liaison vehicles and even as rail tractors. The
ambulance version proved to be well-suited for use in the combat areas. The ambulances could carry three
stretcher patients or four seated patients, and two others could sit with the driver. Besides those made in the United States, ambulance bodies were also made by of
Boulogne, near
Paris. The
Romanian Army also made use of converted Model T ambulances. These ambulances, named "
Regina Maria" ambulances, were capable of carrying four stretcher patients. Conversion work was done by the Leonida Workshops of
Bucharest. An
armored-car variant (called the "
FT-B") was developed in Poland in 1920 due to the high demand during the
Polish-Soviet war in 1920. Many Model Ts were converted into vehicles that could travel across heavy snows with kits on the rear wheels (sometimes with an extra pair of rear-mounted wheels and two sets of
continuous track to mount on the now-tandemed rear wheels, essentially making it a
half-track) and skis replacing the front wheels. They were popular for rural mail delivery for a time. The common name for these conversions of cars and small trucks was "snowflyers". These vehicles were extremely popular in the northern reaches of Canada, where factories were set up to produce them. A number of companies built Model T–based railcars. In
The Great Railway Bazaar, Paul Theroux mentions a rail journey in India on such a railcar. The
New Zealand Railways Department's
RM class included a few. The American LaFrance company modified more than 900 Model Ts for use in firefighting, adding tanks, hoses, tools and a bell. Model T fire engines were in service in North America, Europe, and Australia. ==Production==