9 replies to this topic

[Bob Riebe]

These are the Fords you rarely hear or read much about, Thank You Mac.

 

https://www.macsmoto...ford-model-nrs/

 

Contrary to popular belief, Henry Ford was a highly successful automaker well before he introduced the Model T in October of 1908. One key to his success was the popularity of the Models N, R, and S of 1906-08. Not only did these cars lift Ford to the top ranks of the U.S auto industry, they served as the engineering foundation for the automobile that truly changed the world, the Model T....

 

1906 Ford Model N Runabout with Henry Ford in the passenger seat
 

1907 Ford Model R Runabout
 

1908 Ford Model S Roadster
...It’s clear that Ford and his engineers, including Joe Galamb and C.H. Wills, took the ideas developed and lessons learned on the NRS and applied them to the Model T, adding a number of important innovations, too. As demand for the Model T exploded, there was no longer room for NRS production and the last Model S Roadsters were sold in early 1909. While the NRS was a stepping stone, it was a critical one. If not for the Models N, R, and S, the Model T may have been a very different car.

 

[BRG]

Interesting - I had not seen pictures of these early models before.  You can see the DNA that the Model T inherited.

 

But what happened to Models A to M, and Models O, P & Q?  

[Charlieman]

They're displayed next to the GT39.

[Catalina Park]

Model A 1903-04
Model B 1904-06
Model C 1904-05
Model F 1905-06
Model K 1906-08

[Ray Bell]

The Model K was one that Henry didn't want to build...

 

But the new financiers insisted. He was convinced that the money was to be made by making cheap cars for mass sales, the backers wanted a luxury 6-cylinder car. It would be fair to say that Ford took some wrong decisions with the K and that it wasn't a winner, sales were so slow while the N was selling like hot cakes that he introduced a system where dealers were forced to take a K for every (two? four? six? I don't recall) N models they ordered.

 

Between these cars and the T-model, which also changed many times over the years, there was a pre-production T, which was Ford's way of finalising the T's design details via the sale of hundreds (thousands?) to paying customers.

[Rupertlt1]

Do Holley carbs appear in this story?

RGDS RLT

[robert dick]

In 1907 two Ford model N runabouts (3 3⁄4 x 3 3⁄8 inches, 149 cubic inches) were successful in a 24-hour race. The race took place on 21 and 22 June 1907 on the 1-mile fairground track at Detroit, Michigan, and was open to stripped stock chassis. Cunningham in a model N finished fifth after completing 798 miles. A second model N shared by Scott and Miller took seventh with 728 miles.

The 24-hour race was won by a six-cylinder Ford model K (4 1⁄2 x 4 1⁄4 inches, 405 cubic inches) shared by Frank Kulick and Bert Lorimer. The winning model K covered 1135 miles. Herb Lytle in a Pope-Toledo finished second with 1109 miles.

By the end of 1907, at the Paris Salon in the Grand Palais, the Ford Motor Co. was the only exhibit representing America. Ford placed an exclusive agency with Henri Depasse. Depasse sold the Ford model N at 3,900 francs ($780), the price level of a French single-cylinder voiturette. (At the same time in America, the model N was listed at $600.)
 

[BRG]

.... he introduced a system where dealers were forced to take a K for every (two? four? six? I don't recall) N models they ordered.

 

Ford UK were doing the same fairly recently.  Smaller cars like the Fiestas, Escorts and Cortinas sold well but  dealers got saddled with the less popular Zephyr/Zodiacs and Granadas

Edited by BRG, 08 February 2025 - 15:51.

[Catalina Park]

The Model K was the successor to the Model B, and was a very profitable vehicle for Ford at the time. There are a lot of myths about the K. 

[Ray Bell]

Having spent some time with one of the two (or three?) K-model owners in Australia, I was quite surprised with some of the details...

 

He claimed that if you were driving slowly on a rough road it was possible for the twisting of the chassis to cause the crankcase to distort enough to stop the crankshaft from turning. The chassis ends at the rear axle line and the body behind that point is cantilevered, so that distortion of the body is significant.