The Ford Model A (also colloquially called the A-Model Ford or the A, and A-bone among hot rodders and customizers) is the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

's second market success, replacing the venerable

Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by the Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first mass-affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. Th ...

which had been produced for 18 years. It was first produced on October 20, 1927, but not introduced until December 2. This new Model A ( a previous model had used the name in 1903–04) was designated a 1928 model and was available in four standard colors. By February 4, 1929, one million Model A's had been sold, and by July 24, two million.Gauld, p. 693. The range of body styles ran from the Tudor at US$500 (in grey, green, or black) ($ in dollars) to the town car with a dual cowl at US$1,200 ($ in dollars ). In March 1930, Model A sales hit three million, and there were nine body styles available. Model A production ended in March 1932, after 4,858,644 had been made in all body styles. Its successor was the Model B, which featured an updated inline four-cylinder engine, as well as the Model 18, which introduced Ford's new flathead (sidevalve) V8 engine.

Features

Prices for the Model A ranged from US$385 for a roadster to US$1,400 for the town car. The engine was a water-cooled

L-head A flathead engine, also known as a sidevalve engine''American Rodder'', 6/94, pp.45 & 93. or valve-in-block engine, is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the Cam-in-block, engine block, instead of in the cyl ...

inline four with a displacement of . This engine provided . Top speed was around . The Model A had a wheelbase with a final drive ratio of 3.77:1. The transmission was a conventional unsynchronized three-speed sliding-gear manual with a single speed reverse. The Model A had four-wheel mechanical

drum brake A drum brake is a brake that uses friction caused by a set of Brake shoe, shoes or Brake pad, pads that press outward against a rotating bowl-shaped part called a brake drum. The term ''drum brake'' usually means a brake in which shoes press o ...

s. The Model A came in a wide variety of styles including

coupe A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...

s (standard and deluxe), business coupe, sports coupe, roadster coupes (standard and deluxe), convertible cabriolet, convertible sedan, phaetons (standard and deluxe), Tudor sedans (standard and deluxe), town car, Fordors (five-window standard, three-window deluxe), Victoria, town sedan, station wagon, taxicab, truck, and commercial. The very rare special coupe started production around March 1928 and ended in mid-1929. The Model A was the first Ford to use the standard set of driver controls with conventional clutch and brake pedals, throttle, and gearshift. Previous Fords used controls that had become uncommon to drivers of other makes. The Model A's fuel was situated in the cowl, between the engine compartment's fire wall and the dash panel. It had a visual fuel gauge, and the fuel flowed to the carburetor by gravity. A rear-view mirror was optional. In cooler climates, owners could purchase an aftermarket cast iron unit to place over the exhaust manifold to provide heat to the cab. A small door provided adjustment of the amount of hot air entering the cab. The Model A was the first car to have

safety glass Safety glass is glass with additional safety features that make it less likely to break, or less likely to pose a threat when broken. Common designs include toughened glass (also known as tempered glass), laminated glass, and wire mesh glass (als ...

in the windshield. The

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

company

GAZ Gaz may refer to: Geography *Gaz, Kyrgyzstan Iran * Gaz, Darmian, village in South Khorasan province * Gaz, Golestan, a village in Bandar-e Gaz County * Gaz, Hormozgan, a village in Minab County * Gaz, Kerman, a village * Gaz, North Khorasan, a ...

, which started as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between Ford and the Soviet Union, made a licensed version from 1932–1936.. In Europe, where in some countries cars were taxed according to engine size, Ford in the UK manufactured the Model A with a smaller displacement engine of , providing a claimed output of . However, this equated to a British fiscal horsepower of (compared to the of the larger engine) and attracted a punitive annual car tax levy of £1 per fiscal hp in the UK. It, therefore, was expensive to own and too heavy and uneconomical to achieve volume sales, so it was unable to compete in the newly developing mass market while also too crude to compete as a luxury product. European manufactured Model As failed to achieve the sales success in Europe that would greet their smaller successor in Britain and Germany.

Development history

From the mid-1910s through the early 1920s, Ford dominated the automotive market with its Model T. However, during the mid-1920s, this dominance eroded as competitors, especially the various General Motors divisions, caught up with Ford's mass production system and began to better Ford in some areas, especially by offering more powerful engines, new convenience features, or cosmetic customization....

Edsel Ford Edsel Bryant Ford (November 6, 1893 – May 26, 1943) was an American business executive and philanthropist, who was the only child of pioneering industrialist Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Jane Bryant Ford. He was the president of Ford Motor C ...

and Ford's sales force recognized the threat and advised Henry to respond to it. Initially, he resisted, but the T's sagging market share finally forced him to admit a replacement was needed. When he finally agreed to begin development of this new model, he focused on the mechanical aspects and on what today is called

design for manufacturability Design for manufacturability (also sometimes known as design for manufacturing or DFM) is the general engineering practice of designing products in such a way that they are easy to manufacture. The concept exists in almost all engineering discipl ...

(DFM), which he had always strongly embraced and for which the Model T production system was famous. Although ultimately successful, the development of the Model A included many problems that had to be resolved.. For example, the die stamping of parts from sheet steel, which the Ford company had led to new heights of development with the Model T production system, was something Henry had always been ambivalent about; it had brought success, but he felt that it was not the best choice for durability. He was determined that the Model A would rely more on drop forgings than the Model T, but his ideas to improve the DFM of forging did not prove practical. Eventually, Ford's engineers persuaded him to relent, lest the Model A's production cost force up its retail price too much.. It was during the period from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s that the limits of the first generation of

mass production Mass production, also known as mass production, series production, series manufacture, or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines ...

, epitomized by the Model T production system's rigidity, became apparent. The era of " flexible mass production" had begun., Chapter 7: Cul-de-sac: The Limits of

Fordism Fordism is an industrial engineering and manufacturing system that serves as the basis of modern social and labor-economic systems that support industrialized, standardized mass production and mass consumption. The concept is named after Henry ...

& the Coming of "Flexible Mass Production"., Chapter 16: Farewell to Model T.

Legacy

The Model A was well-represented in the media of the era since it was one of the most common cars. Model kits remain available from hobby shops as stock cars or

hot rod Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimized for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and ma ...

s. High-quality die-cast Model A's are represented in 1/24 scale by the Danbury Mint 1931 roadster and the Franklin Mint 1930 Tudor sedan. Several models have obtained particular fame. The ''Mean Green Machine'', a green and black 1931 Tudor sedan, has been a staple of

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...

football games and special events since 1974, maintained by the spirit organization Talons since the 1980s. The '' Ramblin' Wreck'', a 1930 sports coupe, is the official mascot of the student body at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

and appears at sporting events and student body functions. ''Ala Kart'', a customized 1929 roadster pickup built by George Barris, won two straight " America's Most Beautiful Roadster" awards at the

Oakland Roadster Show The Grand National Roadster Show (otherwise known as GNRS, or unofficially as the ''Oakland Roadster Show''), is a showcase of custom cars and hot rods held each year at the Fairplex in Pomona, California, in either late January or early February ...

before making numerous film and television appearances. Between October 1992 and December 1994, Hector Quevedo, along with his son Hugo, drove a 1928 Model A from his home in

Punta Arenas Punta Arenas (, historically known as Sandy Point in English) is the capital List of cities in Chile, city of Chile's southernmost Regions of Chile, region, Magallanes Region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. Although officially renamed as ...

, Chile to Ford headquarters in

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Dearborn borders Detroit to the south and west, roughly west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 United States ...

. The car required minimal service, including a flat tire and transmission work in Nicaragua, and is now housed in the Henry Ford Museum. A 1930 Model A, used by the gangster

John Dillinger John Herbert Dillinger (; June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression. He commanded the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing twenty-four banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprison ...

to escape federal agents in 1934, was sold at auction in 2010 for $165,000.

Jenny Railcars

Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad Jenny Railcar Ford Model A

The West Side Lumber Company of California converted several Model As into railcars which could carry 12 people. A few still see regular service on the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad, also in California, alongside Shays Nos. 10 and 15.

Gallery

File:1928 Model A Ford.jpg, 1928 Ford Model A Tudor sedan File:HFM Chile to Michigan 1928 Model A Ford.jpg, Hector Quevedo's 1928 Model A on display at the Henry Ford Museum File:Ford Model A 1928 Wood Gas 01.jpg, 1928 Model A Fordor with a 1941 Kaiser wood gas generator File:'28 Ford Model A Hotrod (Auto classique St. Lazare '10).jpg, 1928 Model A

with roll pan, chopped top, and late-model headlights and mirrors File:1928-ford-archives.jpg, 1928 Model A business coupe File:1929 Ford Model A Gazogene.jpg, 1929 Model A Gazogene on display at the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum. This car was modified in 1939 to use an alternative fuel in the form of wood or charcoal. File:Ford Model A Town Car.jpg, 1929 town car from the Museum of Automobiles in Arkansas File:1929 Ford Model AA Truck DGO099.jpg, 1929 Model AA heavy-duty truck variant of the Model A File:Ford Model A Snow Flyer.jpg, 1931. Ford Model A, Snow Flyer File:'31 Ford Model A (Auto classique).JPG, Hot rod with 1931 roadster body and chassis, Deuce grille shell, chrome-hatted

carburetor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor or carburetter) is a device used by a gasoline internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the Ventu ...

s, drilled

I-beam An I-beam is any of various structural members with an - (serif capital letter 'I') or H-shaped cross section (geometry), cross-section. Technical terms for similar items include H-beam, I-profile, universal column (UC), w-beam (for "wide flang ...

dropped front axle, finned

s, and zoomie pipes

References

Bibliography

* * * * Gauld, Graham. "The Ford Motor Company", in Northey, Tom, ed. ''World of Automobile'', Volume 6, pp. 681–700. London: Phoebus, 1974.

External links

Model A Ford Reference Sheet, Owners Manual, and Help
* Model A Ford Club of America

* Model A Restorers Club

* Ford Model AA Truck Club

* A-Ford Club Nederland

Follow Henry As We Tour The Long Beach Assembly Plant circa 1930

Fordbarn, An active forum for discussion about the Model A Ford

365 Days of A, One man's quest to drive a Ford Model A for an entire year.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford Model A (1927-1931) Ford vehicles, Model A Cars introduced in 1927 1900s cars Coupés Full-size vehicles Pickup trucks Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Town cars Sedans Road–rail vehicles Cars discontinued in 1932