Vehicle Description
This vehicle is dressed in a blue paint with a greenish hue riding
on cream-colored wheels. Powered by a 40 horsepower 200c.i. inline
4 cylinder engine and mated to a 3 speed manual gear box. Great
driving car with interior and exterior in matching condition, this
would be a great piece to add to any automotive collection. 40 bhp,
200.5 cu. in. L-head inline four-cylinder engine, three-speed
manual transmission, solid front axle and live rear axle with
transverse semi-elliptic leaf springs, and four-wheel mechanical
drum brakes. Wheelbase: 103.5 in. By 1927, Henry Ford had built
more than 17 million Model Ts, the car that truly put America on
wheels. The long-running model, conceived in 1908, had changed
little, however, and by that time was quite antiquated in
comparison to its competitors. Ford's son Edsel, then president of
the firm but basically in name only, had been trying for years to
convince his father to update the T. Finally, he was successful,
and in June 1927 Henry Ford halted production completely. His new
car, ready in October, was novel in many ways and to emphasize the
fact Ford returned to the beginning of the alphabet and christened
it Model A. The engine followed the Model T formula, an L-head
inline four, and though it was a mere 14 percent larger in
displacement it produced twice the brake horsepower. Replacing the
two-speed planetary transmission of the T was a three-speed
selective gearbox, though transverse leaf springs and torque tube
drive were retained, but the car had four-wheel brakes. It rode a
three-and-a-half inch longer wheelbase and weighed 700 pounds more
than its predecessor. Most noticeable was the styling. Reminiscent
of the Lincoln, the car that Edsel had ushered into trendy, iconic
styling after his father acquired the company in 1922, the new
Model A was similarly drawn under the scion's watchful eye. While
his father was practical and pragmatic, hewing to the
form-follows-function school of design, Edsel was an aesthete of
the highest order and knew how design could attract customers. He
was proved right as the public queued up for a first look and
placed orders that the factories took months to fill. The new Model
A was designated a 1928 model, and several running changes took
place in that first year. The long hiatus from Model T to Model A
caused Ford to fall behind Chevrolet for both calendar years 1927
and '28, but for 1929 Ford rebounded mightily to more than 1.5
million cars. It would be the company's best year for some time to
come.
