Synopses & Reviews
The story of Ford Motor Company’s Model T is the story that launched the American automobile industry--and America’s love affair with the car. When he introduced the Model T in 1908, even an eternal optimist like Henry Ford could not have predicted the far-reaching changes he was setting in motion. One hundred years later, this illustrated history looks back at the beloved Tin Lizzie. The book follows the Model T from design considerations (its ground clearance, for instance, had to allow for the abysmal state of U.S. roadways at the time) to its lasting legacy, and along the way describes the mechanical, manufacturing, and marketing innovations that the car’s production entailed.
Author Lindsay Brooke also relates the adventures and misadventures that were part of owning and driving a Model T. He chronicles the changes the car’s unprecedented popularity wrought in the auto industry (including Ford’s introduction of the “$5 day”), and he tracks the Model T through popular culture, from its role in early motorsports to its resurgent popularity in the 1950s and 60s as a platform for T-bucket hot rods. Illustrated throughout with period art and evocative photography, this book celebrates as never before the car that epitomized the American automobile.
Synopsis
The story of Ford Motor Company's Model T is the story that launched the American automobile industry--and America's love affair with the car. When he introduced the Model T in 1908, even an eternal optimist like Henry Ford could not have predicted the far-reaching changes he was setting in motion. One hundred years later, this illustrated history looks back at the beloved Tin Lizzie. The book follows the Model T from design considerations (its ground clearance, for instance, had to allow for the abysmal state of U.S. roadways at the time) to its lasting legacy, and along the way describes the mechanical, manufacturing, and marketing innovations that the car's production entailed.
Author Lindsay Brooke also relates the adventures and misadventures that were part of owning and driving a Model T. He chronicles the changes the car's unprecedented popularity wrought in the auto industry (including Ford's introduction of the "$5 day"), and he tracks the Model T through popular culture, from its role in early motorsports to its resurgent popularity in the 1950s and 60s as a platform for T-bucket hot rods. Illustrated throughout with period art and evocative photography, this book celebrates as never before the car that epitomized the American automobile.
Synopsis
100 years after the introduction of the Model T, this illustrated history tells the full story of the car that launched the American auto industry.
Synopsis
One hundred years after the Model T’s introduction, this marvelously illustrated history examines all aspects of the car’s genesis, production, marketing, and legacy. Veteran automotive journalist Lindsay Brooke explores Model T predecessors, the production methods that evolved to meet the demand for the car, and Ford’s introduction of the revolutionary “five-dollar day.” Brooke also traces 19 years of model changes, covers T-based trucks, and provides a rollicking look at the car’s role in early motorsports and hot rodding. Illustrated throughout with photography and period art, much of it from The Henry Ford Museum, Model T: The Car That Put the World on Wheels brings the story right up to the present, with a look at T ownership today. The result is a fitting tribute to the world’s first automotive icon.
Synopsis
When Ford Motor Company introduced the Model T in late 1908, company officials knew they had a winner. Ford was already the national sales leader and the new car was a significant improvement over its predecessors. Yet even an inveterate optimist like Henry Ford could not predict the far-reaching changes his “Tin Lizzie” would affect.
One hundred years later, this marvelously illustrated history of the automobile that launched an American industry takes on all aspects of the Model T’s genesis, production, marketing, and legacy. Veteran automotive journalist and editor Lindsay Brooke examines everything from infrastructure considerations that influenced the car’s design (its ground clearance, for example, was predicated on the abysmal state of U.S. roadways) to the production methods that evolved to meet the burgeoning demand for the car, and Ford Motor Company’s introduction of the revolutionary “five-dollar day.” Brooke also covers the Model T’s predecessors, early sales and marketing efforts, model changes, and T trucks, as well as adventures and misadventures with Model Ts and the car’s role in early motorsports and hot rodding.
Illustrated throughout with photography and period art, much of it from the Benson Ford Research Center at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, Model T: The Car That Put the World on Wheels is a fitting tribute to the first automotive icon.
About the Author
Detroit-based auto writer Lindsay Brooke has been covering automotive and motorcycle technology and history for more than 25 years. He is senior editor of Automotive Engineering International, published by the SAE, and has served as editor of Automotive Industries magazine (successor to The Horseless Age and The Automobile). This is his fourth Motorbooks title.Detroit-based auto writer Lindsay Brooke has been covering automotive and motorcycle technology and history for more than 25 years. He is senior editor of Automotive Engineering International, published by the SAE, and has served as editor of Automotive Industries magazine (successor to The Horseless Age and The Automobile).Detroit-based auto writer Lindsay Brooke has been covering automotive and motorcycle technology and history for more than 25 years. He is senior editor of Automotive Engineering International, published by the SAE, and has served as editor of Automotive Industries magazine (successor to The Horseless Age and The Automobile). This is his fourth Motorbooks title.
Table of Contents
Contents
Forewords By Bill Ford, Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company
and Patricia Mooradian, President, The Henry Ford
Introduction The Most Important Car in History
The impact of Henry Ford and his Model T
Chapter 1 Before the Model T
Ford’s early history and the “alphabet” cars—Models A, B, C, F, K, N, R, and S
Chapter 2 The Model T Is Born
Genesis and mass production
Chapter 3 Tin Lizzie Evolves
Charting the changes of the “changeless” Model T
Chapter 4 Life with Lizzie
Owning and driving the Model T
Chapter 5 The T Goes Truckin’
Stripper chassis, Roadster Pickups, and the TT
Chapter 6 Racing and Rodding the T
A century of going fast—and keeping “cool”
Chapter 7 Model T’s Second Century
Collecting, restoring, and flivver-fun in the Internet age
Appendixes
Acknowledgments
Index