Ford Model T Tudor
Sober and reliable, that is in a nutshell the essence of the Ford Model T, also known as the T-Ford, of which fifteen million were produced between 1908 and 1927.
This is a late model that has been part of the Louwman collection since 1935, when it was just 11 years old. The name ‘Tudor’ has nothing to do with the British Royal family. It is a contraction of ‘two-door’. Likewise, the four-door model is shortened to the ‘Fordor’.
The T-Ford is the first car in the world to be manufactured on an assembly line – and so mass-produced; at a certain point during the production period half of all cars in the world were Ford Model Ts. Despite being of simple construction and inexpensive to buy, they were of excellent quality. They were developed for use on poor, unsurfaced roads in the United States and are unbelievably robust and reliable. The chassis, for example, is made of very strong vanadium steel. Pressing and releasing the pedals selects the two forward gears; the accelerator is operated by a lever under the steering wheel.