The Ford Eifel is a

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

manufactured by

Ford Germany Ford-Werke GmbH is a German car manufacturer headquartered in Niehl, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, which operates two large manufacturing facilities in Germany, a plant in Cologne and a plant in Saar ...

between 1935 and 1940. It initially complemented, and then replaced, the

Ford Köln The Ford Köln is an automobile that was produced by Ford Germany from 1933 until 1936 at its Cologne plant. Origins The English Ford company had developed the car and introduced it in 1932 as the Ford Model Y. The German-built version, rena ...

. It was itself replaced by the

Ford Taunus The Ford Taunus is a family car that was sold by Ford Germany throughout Europe. Models from 1970 onward were built on the same basic construction as the Ford Cortina MkIII in the United Kingdom, and later on, the two car models were essentiall ...

. Between 1937 and 1939, it was also assembled in Hungary and Denmark. The Eifel was derived from the

Ford Model C (Europe) The Ford Model C is a car that was produced from 1934 until 1937 by Ford UK in Dagenham. It had an 1172 cc (71.5 ci) four-cylinder sidevalve engine delivering . It was the big brother to the smaller Ford Y, which had a 933 cc (57 ci) engine. The ...

1934 platform, and is also related to the Dagenham-built 1938

Ford Prefect The Ford Prefect is a line of British cars which was produced by Ford UK between 1938 and 1961 as an upmarket version of the Ford Popular and Ford Anglia small family cars. It was introduced in October 1938 and remained in production until 19 ...

and 1939

Ford Anglia The Ford Anglia is a small family car that was designed and manufactured by Ford UK. It is related to the Ford Prefect and the later Ford Popular. The Anglia name was applied to various models between 1939 and 1967. In total, 1,594,486 Anglias ...

. The model was named after the

Eifel The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...

mountain range in western Germany.

Body

The car was offered with many different body types, including a two-door sedan, a two-door

cabrio coach A cabrio coach or semi-convertible is a type of car that has a retractable textile roof, similar to a convertible/cabriolet. The difference is that where a convertible often has the B-pillar, C-pillar and other bodywork removed, the cabrio coac ...

, two- and four-seat

cabriolet A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...

, two-seater roadster, and a light

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

. The mainstream "limousine" (saloon) steel bodies were bought in from the

Ambi Budd Ambi-Budd was a German automobile body company founded by Edward Gowen Budd In Germany, Edward Gowen Budd worked with Arthur Müller and set up a steel pressing plant ''Ambi Budd Presswerke'' (ABP) in the old Rumpler factory and became a successfu ...

factory in Berlin, while the "cabrio-Limousine" (soft-top saloons/sedans) were built by Drauz coachbuilders of

Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. From the late Mid ...

. Several other body builders such as Gläser coachbuilders of

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

provided the less mainstream bodies.

Engine and transmission

The engine was a four-cylinder, four-stroke,

side-valve 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 engine block, instead of in the cylinder head, as ...

1172-cc unit, giving a claimed maximum power output of 34 hp (25 kW) at 4250 rpm. The three-speed manual gearbox featured synchromesh on the top two ratios.

Commercial

Ford Eifel Two door cabrio 1172cc mfd 1937

In Germany, 61,495 Ford Eifels were produced, representing more than half of the output of the company's Cologne factory between production of the plant's first car in 1933 and the cessation of passenger-car manufacture in 1942, following the outbreak, in 1939, of widespread European war. In large measure due to this car's popularity, Ford Germany moved from eighth place in terms of German passenger car sales in 1933 to fourth place in 1938, in the process overtaking Adler,

Hanomag Hanomag (Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG, ) was a German producer of steam locomotives, tractors, trucks and military vehicles in Hanover. Hanomag first achieved international fame by delivering numerous steam locomotives to Finland, Romania and B ...

Wanderer Wanderer, Wanderers, or The Wanderer may refer to: * Nomadism, Nomadic and/or itinerant people, working short-term before moving to other locations, who wander from place to place with no permanent home, or are vagrancy (people), vagrant * The Wan ...

, and BMW. The car's popularity in Germany increased after a minor face-lift in 1937, which coincided with an extension of the variety of body styles on offer, and which visually distanced the look of the car a little from its British origins, replacing the earlier car's spoked wheels with modern steel wheels and applying the eye- catching wrap-around front grill, which was becoming a feature of German Fords in the late 1930s.

References

This entry includes information from the equivalent entry in the German Wikipedia. {{Commons category, Ford Eifel

Cars introduced in 1935 lv:Ford-Vairogs Taunus