Also, yes, it'll more than likely star Megan Fox and some emasculated young boy. Feel free to peruse the gallery below in case you've forgotten who she is.

Model T

Ford's plan for the Model T was to offer a simple, usable, high-quality automobile that anyone could afford, and the idea caught on, to put it mildly. The T started out as what everybody's mental image of an early automobile has come to be, hand crank, wooden wheels, acetylene lights and all. Ten years after its introduction, it had an electric starter, actual front doors, a roof, and accounted for half the cars in America. Yes, sir, it's the car that made the people who wanted to git up and go actually able to do so-before the T, transportation almost couldn't BE basic.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The Jeep

We're talking the true stripped-down models here, the Willys and CJ models that are coveted by off-road types but also worked brilliantly around town. Almost unbreakable, because there was nothing to break. Impossible to be uptight around them, once you got them away from heavy traffic and, you know, the military. And pretty hard to get now, more's the pity. We're embarrassed for choice in one model to feature, but during the Chevette Era right up through the dawn of the Neon, it was possible to get a retired Postal Service Jeep or AM General delivery truck like the one here, switch the steering wheel back to the left side, and drive in relative style and comfort (relative to walking, anyway). There's something magnificent about that.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The Ford Falcon

No, not the contemporary Australian version - the one your uncle the insurance salesman had. Or great-uncle, even. You want a Dodge Dart? You're welcome to it, but that's the easy choice. The Falcon was, to put it plainly, just a comfortable car to buy and live with, and more interesting; it came in lots of body styles, including convertible and Ranchero pickup, and was is considered to be one of the great successes of Ford president Robert McNamara, unlike his other project, the Vietnam War. It sold like crazy for a while, but unfortunately, it was shoved to the side by Ford's own more desirable Mustang.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The Volkswagen Beetle

Infinite volumes have been written about this car, but perhaps the single most important Beetle fact is this: It was perhaps as bad as a car can be and still be fun to own. It rusted, it didn't heat or defrost, it was slow, it handled strangely, it was ugly, and it made annoying sounds. But it got to people, somehow, in a way that transcended its novelty value, the way rescued dogs or tiny apartments sometimes do. After all, it was light, it was relatively reliable, and it was different. it If nothing else, it's worth noting that there wasn't really anything else commonly available at the time that offered as much sheer immediacy, and a long road trip in one of these was a small personal epic. Still, the rest of the world got the original Mini, and we got this?

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The Chevy Nova

In the 1970s, an era when most cars aspired to be rolling living rooms, the cheaper Nova aspired to be a rolling basement rec room, a somewhat overstuffed, purposefully shabby place, usually with lots of browns and yellows, a place where it was perfectly okay to put your feet on the Davenport. No one really wanted one, but plenty of people would up with one and wound up having good times in it, if not with it. It was roomy enough for four people who weren't too choosy, so anyone in there with you was probably a good friend of yours to begin with. Importantly, it could be made faster easily enough, especially the small-block versions, although part of the fun of that was ignoring how slow they were to begin with. The first car a lot of people in Generation X ever worked on voluntarily. Still, though people may not have wanted one, just try finding someone who owned one and doesn't wish they still had it.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Ford F-150

Of course, the best-selling vehicle in the world can be had in any trim level you want, but the base-level truck has always been one charismatic automobile. Throw stuff at it, in it, on it, it doesn't care. Get the awesomely durable 300-inch straight six in it, change the oil often, and trundle on through eternity.Hose it off, hose it out, and take it to town, and it still has a certain... well, not class, but a capable dignity you're not going to get in most cars. Plus it's the most common way to get a pleasant and raffish two-seater in a culture that tends to frown on that sort of thing.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Honda CRX-HF

The CRX is lovable indeed, but unlike most basic beaters, this one was an obvious treasure off the showroom floor. The liter-and-a-half engine and the five-speed were zippy enough, and fuel economy numbers in the 40s were certainly impressive, but the best part was that it weighed about 70 pounds. Oh, okay, about 1,700, but even in the mid-eighties that was a treat. There are just two seats, but it was a fine little runabout for all that, fairly spacious and Honda-solid. Plus but it rotated on a point right between those two seats, which was fun, and with those EPA numbers this fun was basically free. Sadly, the word is out now and no CRX has sold for basic transportation money since the turn of the century.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Ford Festiva

Most people know this car from the SHOgun models with the Yamaha V6 from the Taurus SHO dropped in where the back seats should be. That's fine, but don't overlook the terrier nature of the Mazda-built box, as were all the first-generation Festivas, which are really all the ones worth mentioning. They're zippy enough, roomy enough, and even lighter than a CRX, making them a surprisingly involving drive. Owner anecdotes, always the most interesting of perhaps not the most scientific source of information about older model cars, reveal that the Festiva is tenacious as can be, one of those cars that refuses to give up the ghost completely even after many, many nonessential parts have broken on them. A resounding endorsement, that. Also, the interior fabric over the door panels is so thin that refrigerator magnets can be stuck on, and how do you put a price on that kind of charm?

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Dodge Neon

In the long run, it wasn't an out-of-the park four-bagger. Build quality wasn't what Chrysler promised, the look didn't age well, and the fluids didn't stay in the engine like they really should have. But when it was introduced, buyers - including a lot of first-time car owners - were delighted to have a reasonably peppy, distinctively styled car from an American automaker. That it handled genuinely well was a nice bonus, for those who noticed. They were everywhere for a while, and unlike a lot of examples of automotive ubiquity, that was generally considered to be okay; a street lightly salted with Neons was a sign that something was going right. It didn't last, of course; bits started falling off, it was notably bad in crash testing (to be fair, just look at the rest of this list!) and a first-generation Neon with a For Sale sign on it may as well have had a warning sign on it, too. But the Neon's success was a sign that happy no-frills success was possible. We wish GM, and anyone else who wants to give it a try, all the best.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

It's easy to think cars have always worked like modern cars do. After all, the basic control scheme became commonplace sometime in the 1930s and admitting some variation through the years, hasn't deviated too much. The Model T certainly has four wheels and a steering wheel, but there's no foot accelerator, no shift knob, no oil dipstick and something an exceedingly few people these days have ever even heard of called a "spark advance," something done by computer now, but which was manually controlled back in the day. Ed Hebb, a volunteer at the Henry Ford Estate in Dearborn takes us for a walk around a Model T and explains how everything works. It makes the convenience of turning a key and hitting the gas something to appreciate.

Check out the headroom in this thing! Four basketball players in top hats could carpool in this machine (five if the backseat passengers are extra skinny), although the 20-horsepower flathead four under the hood would make their commute a leisurely one. Back in 1924, the price tag on one of these Fords was $580, which translates to about $7,200 in today's dollars. Would you buy the 2009 equivalent of the Model T for that kind of money?


This car shares an owner with the 1919 Model T Touring, and both are used to run errands around town. Closing in on a century and still putting on miles!


And there's the 1971 C10 Custom Deluxe, right across the street. The '73 Corvette lives just around the corner. Notice all the American flags on the houses in this neighborhood; it's not a holiday, just business as usual in the Navy-retiree-heavy area near the (now-closed) Alameda Naval Air Station.

How about 89 years old and parked on the street? Granted, this West End car doesn't live full-time on the street, but every so often it spends a few days doing so, along with its 1924 garagemate. At that point it's used to run errands, go grocery shopping, and so on, though it seldom leaves the island and its 25 MPH speed limits. The owner is a regular Jalopnik reader, and he agreed to let me know the next time his old Fords would be getting some street time.


Got to love the uncomplicated controls. Ignition switch and ammeter. Period. The Model T was 11 years old by 1919, and old Henry- in between foamy-mouthed fulminations on the Elders Of Zion- was working double-time to get costs down. You could get the '19 Touring for just $525, or about $6,500 in today's bucks (the '08 model went for $850). And hey, this was the first year of the electric starter, so broken wrists became optional!

The Aachen University team entered their creatively named "2015 Model T" concept using a standardized chassis that, much like the original Tin Lizzie, could support a variety of body styles including a pickup, city car and sedan. The Model T2 from Deakin University seems to ignore the "simple" and "practical" elements of the competition, instead using a three-wheel layout powered by compressed air rotary hub motors.

The contest results lead us to wonder why Ford expects us to embrace American designs when they're so clearly not prepared to do so themselves. After all, the four other participating schools were all US-based: the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif.; Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Mich.; University of Michigan-Dearborn, and West Philadelphia High School, Philadelphia, Pa. Yet Ford is telling us that an air-powered Australian tripod car most clearly embraces the spirit of the Model T? We're crying foul. [Carscoop]

1. King of the assembly line -
Ford: The Model T brought mobility and prosperity on an undreamed of scale through manufacturing efficiencies at a price that anyone could afford. The mass production process perfected the moving assembly line, creating and defining the industrial age and enabling Ford to steadily decrease the price of the Model T. In 1908, the first Model Ts sold for $825. By 1925, it sold for only $260.

Jalopnik: The Model T is largely responsible for the introduction of assembly lines to the manufacturing process, bringing cheap cars to everyone. This fundamentally altered the American manufacturing and employment landscape, but ultimately created the tools with which offshore manufacturing was able to compete with domestic industry. Besides, was giving absolutely everyone in the entire country the ability to own a car a good thing? Only time and melted polar ice caps will tell.

2. Friend of the factory worker –
Ford: The Model T is responsible for establishing a minimum wage and the eight-hour work day. The $5 a day minimum wage brought the best workers to the Ford factories and is often cited as having helped establish the middle-class. The factory work also gave jobs to people who usually could not find work such as immigrants, women, minorities and people with disabilities.

Jalopnik: Anyone but the Jews! The minimum wage is a complicated issue; the American standard of living makes its workers more expensive and less efficient to use for manufacturing jobs, resulting in the sending of those jobs overseas. Would workers rather earn $5 an hour or be unemployed?

3. Personalize it –
Ford: Over the years, thousands of Model T accessories have been sold. Because of this, the car spurred the aftermarket supplier industry, which is now a $38 billion industry annually. Anytime you see a car with anything from a bumper sticker to chrome wheels, know that the Model T started the customization trend.

Jalopnik: So we have the Model T to blame for SEMA and its ilk? Gee, thanks.

4. The Universal Car –
Ford: Model T stands out as the industry's truly the first global car. By 1921, it accounted for almost 57 percent of the world's automobile production. It also was manufactured in several countries and had dealerships in six continents.

Jalopnik: So bring us all your world beating Euro models already! We don't want to wait till 2010 or only get six models.

5. The American Way –
Ford: Before the Model T, early cars might have a steering wheel on the right, left, or in the center of the front seat. The Model T standardized the left-hand steering wheel.

Jalopnik: We actually think the center-mounted steering wheel is a really cool idea and would have reduced manufacturing costs for global cars. Ford also neglects to mention the bizarre pedal arrangement on the Model T and steering-wheel-mounted throttle controls, none of which are still in use.

6. Any Color As Long As It's Black –
Ford: The myth that the Model T only came in black probably comes from the reality that almost 12 million of the 15 million total Model Ts were black. But, in the early and late years of Model T production, the car was produced in many different colors, including blue, red, green and grey. Oddly, many these hues were so dark they were hardly discernable from black, another reason the myth lives on.

Jalopnik: If only it was so easy to impose your will on consumers these days.

7. Built Ford Tough –
Ford: By 1925, Ford was building its first factory-produced domestic pickup truck - the Ford Model T Runabout - with a pickup body. Ford also offered a heavier-duty, one-ton-rated Model TT pickup - akin to today's F-Series Super Duty. The Model T chassis was simple, strong and lightweight, with a unique three-point suspension that isolated the frame and powertrain from road shock that would cause other less sophisticated chassis designs to flex under heavy loads.

Jalopnik: So what happened? Where are our simple, strong, lightweight trucks now? Or simple, strong, lightweight cars for that matter. Instead we get the F-150, a nice luxury truck, but does the working man really need acres of leather, a 4.6-liter V8 and the ability to tow planet earth?

8. Look at that thing go! –
Ford: Tin Lizzie's original engines offered flexibility and boasted 20 hp, with a top speed of 40-45 mph. The front-mounted, 2.9-liter, four-cylinder, flex-fuel engine was the first single block motor with removable cylinder head and today remains the basis for most modern engines. The engine could be matched to one of nine T body styles, all built on the same chassis.

Jalopnik: Ford: early innovators in badge engineering and revisionist history. We seriously doubt Henry ever called anything “flex-fuel," preferring instead the period-appropriate "huge manufacturing tolerances which have the upshot of enabling the use of whatever combustible liquid you happen to come across."

9. Tin Lizzie, a Pop Culture Icon –
Ford: Soon after the Model T appeared in dealer showrooms, it started appearing in movies, songs, and became part of modern language and culture. The Model T was featured in 1920s black-and-white comedies and became the subject of hundreds of jokes and cartoons that captured the experience about life with the Model T, the personality of the car and its creator, Henry Ford. Hundreds of songs and even whole music albums were created as the Model T became part of pop culture, later generating dozens of nicknames for the car. The most common - "Tin Lizzie" - was the moniker that had several possible origins ranging from the popularity of the female name "Lizzie" during that period to a famous Model T racecar named "Old Liz."

Jalopnik: So where’s the resonance of your current models in pop culture? Toby Keith doesn’t count. Does anyone that you don't pay still sing about Fords?

10. The Car of the Century –
Ford: The Model T was the best-selling vehicle ever, until 1972 when the VW bug finally surpassed it. During 19 years of production, more than 15 Million Model Ts had been sold by May 26, 1927, when a ceremony marked the formal end of Model T production. More than 20 years later in 1999, a panel of 126 automotive experts from 32 countries still chose the Model T as the most influential car of the 20th century.

Jalopnik: But which Ford will be the car of the 21st century? The Fusion? No, we know, it’s gotta be the Taurus. Check back with us in 92 years, you’ll see that we were right. But seriously, where's the game-changing, world beating Ford? We don't mean something that's 10% more or 10% less, we mean a vehicle that fundamentally alters people's perceptions of the automobile. Come on Ford, doing that is what made you great; please do it again.
[Ford]

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The Street Rodder guys have put together a pean to the T-Bucket, which as a young Jalopnik in the Central Valley in the late '70s was our first exposure to hot rodding. Basically a fiberglass tub, a couple of axles and some framerails, the Ts of our youth tended to sport fat wire wheels in back with brake-optional skinnies in the front and had all manner of brass bolted to them. During our RS 4 adventure we ran across a couple in a T-Bucket featuring a smoky flatmotor with Offy heads and a polished beer keg for a gas tank. We wanted one all over again. – Davey G. Johnson

How the Model T Became the T-Bucket [Street Rodder]

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Atop the stripped chassis, Harry built a wooden frame with a narrow, sleek profile, a tear-drop tail and slim windows. Mounted to the frame was hand-formed sheetmetal in a color Henry Ford would have chided as unnecessary - maroon. The really good juju, however, was under the hood. Harry massaged the tin Lizzy's trusty four-cylinder from 20 hp to 23 hp, then mounted a Chevrolet transmission backwards behind the standard Ford unit. This resulted in seven forward gears and five in reverse. With this gearing, the car could reach an astonishing 70 mph. Not only that, but the fuel efficency improved from about 25 mpg to 38 mpg! Total cost of the car... $23.

Unfortunately, Harry sold the car, and it met its end at the nose of a cold, unforgiving locomotive. Harry went on to attend the University of Alberta, where he taught electrical circuitry to Naval cadets in his spare time. Eventually, he joined the Navy and worked on ship electronics. Harry's now most often noted for inventing the Crash Position Indicator, a nifty precursor to aircrafts' black boxes. If a crash was imminent, a pilot would deploy the CPI, which floated gently to the ground, sending out a distress beacon to notify rescue teams. A little part of me is sad his car disappeared into history, but I guess saving lives is okay too. Harry Stevinson, maverick inventor, tinkerer's hero.– Ben Wojdyla

Aero mods - 1930's style [MetroMPG]

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