More than one Ford Model T owner has joked that he’s not too worried about somebody stealing his historic car.
“If you don’t own one, you probably wouldn’t be able to drive one,” said Mike Skinner, a Model T owner and board member of the group restoring the car’s birthplace, the old Piquette Plant in Detroit.
He wasn’t kidding. For such a simple car, it’s pretty complicated to drive.
While the Model T does have three pedals on the floor, none of them is an accelerator. From left to right, they’re the clutch (for the two forward gears), a pedal for reverse gear and the brake.
The accelerator is that little lever on the right side of the steering column, where the turn signals are on a modern car. It’s right across from that left-side lever, which is the spark advance.
Then there’s that whole business about cranking the Model T – literally – to start it, using an actual crank that sticks out below the radiator.
There’s a right way to do that, too. Crank it incorrectly – with a thumb wrapped around the crank instead of under it – and the crank can break a thumb – or worse.
Of course, if one hasn’t set the long, floor-mounted hand brake on the left side of the driver’s seat, the car can run over the operator as it’s cranked and a sore thumb will be the least of his or her problems.
You get the idea.
That’s why Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich., is offering daily demos on four special 1914 Model Ts. They were hand-built by Ford Motor Company for its 2003 centennial, using old blueprints and methods and new parts.
“It’s such an exact copy – it even leaks oil in the same place as an original one,” says operator and driving instructor Paul Labadie.
Although rudimentary, the Village’s “new” 1914-2003 centennial touring model does have style, from its gleaming brass radiator and headlights to its flat, cherry wood firewall and its folding windshield (the pre-World War I version of air conditioning).
Stepping up onto the right-hand running board (there is no door on the driver’s side), one slides across the front bench seat to the steering wheel. The seat is not adjustable, meaning a six-foot driver may find the position a bit cramped behind the wood-and-iron steering wheel.
Releasing the hand brake and pushing the clutch pedal all the way to the floor engages low gear. (There’s no gear shift lever since the Model T has a planetary transmission.)
Staying in low gear means keeping one’s foot down on the clutch pedal as long as the car is in that gear, a position that Labadie said can create leg cramps during long and slow-moving parades.
On the open road, shifting into high gear meant letting the clutch pedal all the way out.
Braking is another matter. That involves finding the middle or neutral position between low and high gear so the right-hand brake pedal can be depressed without stalling the car. Done properly, this brings the T to a leisurely halt.
Trying to concentrate on all of this means ignoring much of what a modern driver knows about cars. And that usually means stalling the vehicle.
Fortunately, Labadie revealed that the Village’s demonstration Model Ts are equipped with a discreet button connected to an electric starter system, which wasn’t available on the original until 1919.
Labadie said that starter button is a boon, since the Model Ts chug around the Village up to eight hours a day, seven days a week, hauling visitors. It’s a real test of endurance for cars originally designed during the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, but they’ve come through with flying colors.
Keeping them running is Bruce Phillips, one of two antique vehicle specialists employed by Greenfield Village. He knows his way around quirky cars, having spent 30 years restoring old Austin-Healeys and Triumphs.
Phillips said the Model Ts are “very basic, but because of their simplicity, they can be harder to work on since they don’t have modern bushings, gaskets and things like distributors.” One particularly complicated repair even requires heating up the entire engine block.
Even so, Phillips enjoys working on Greenfield Village’s Model Ts. “I love them. They’re great fun,” he said.
That’s easy to say for someone who knows how to start – and drive – one.
