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1927 Model T the 15 millionth Ford

This auto was recently seen on the Mall Washington, DC being added to the National Historic Vehicle Register.

(Right now the 1968 Ford Mustang "Bullitt" car is on the Mall!)

The Fifteen-Millionth Ford is a 1927 Ford Model T Touring Car. The basic layout, frame, and design followed closely to the first Model T released in 1908. It features four doors and seating for 5.  The Model T has a standard front-engine rear wheel drive configuration utilizing a flathead four-cylinder engine, and a two-speed planetary transmission. The all-steel body is mounted on a vanadium alloy steel ladder frame with solid axle front and rear leaf spring suspension. The Fifteen-Millionth Ford is a 1927 Ford Model T Touring Car. The basic layout, frame, and design followed closely to the first Model T released in 1908. It features four doors and seating for 5.  The Model T has a standard front-engine rear wheel drive configuration utilizing a flathead four-cylinder engine, and a two-speed planetary transmission. The all-steel body is mounted on a vanadium alloy steel ladder frame with solid axle front and rear leaf spring suspension.

Specifications:
Frame: Steel, ladder
Body: Steel, four-door, touring car
Engine: 176.6 c.i.d. I-4
Transmission: Planetary, two forward speeds
Suspension: Front – Solid axle, transverse leaf springs
Rear – Solid axle, transverse leaf springs
Brakes: Front – None, Rear – Drum, mechanical
Tires: 4.40-4.50/21Wheelbase: 100”Track(F/R): 56” Weight: 1,740 lbs

On May 26, 1927, the Ford Motor Company built the fifteen-millionth Ford – a 1927 Model T Touring Car. Its construction celebrated the end of the Model T line, as the company was beginning preparations for the production and sale of the Model A. Each step of the car’s build was documented including its engine numbering. The eight oldest employees from the Ford Motor Company hand stamped a digit on to the specially painted engine block at the Rouge factory. The engine was placed into the chassis at the Highland Park plant where the Model T was completed. The chassis was fitted with a specially lettered Touring Car body painted blue that featured Edsel Ford (Ford Motor Co. President) and Henry Ford (Ford Motor Co. Founder) drove the car out of the plant and to the Engineering Laboratory for press photos.

After the ceremonious drive off the assembly line, the car became a part of the Edison Institute where it joined a treasure trove of historic artifacts curated by Henry Ford to preserve American history and culture. The Edison Institute is today the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village (need to hyperlink to the Henry Ford website) located in Dearborn, MI. The Fifteen-Millionth Ford is displayed in Greenfield Village in the replica, Mack Avenue Ford factory. Over the years the car has been left virtually as it was when it came off the assembly line in 1927 with the exception of a repaint over what appears to be the original paint and lettering and other small repairs.

https://www.historicvehicle.org/national-historic-vehicle-register/...

From The Henry Ford:

Although the 1927 Model T, like this one, and its 1909 ancestor look radically different due to many styling changes, the basic elements that made the Model T a technological innovation and cultural phenomenon - a simple 4-cylinder engine, planetary transmission, the black body, and a flexible and strong chassis - had become liabilities in the automobile market. Consumers were no longer satisfied with just a basic car. Americans demanded faster cars with smoother rides and more amenities. By the mid-1920s, it was obvious to almost everyone at Ford that the Model T's time had passed. Henry Ford, however, retained his firm belief that the Model T was all that anyone would ever need. In an attempt to check declining sales, Ford engineers drastically restyled and modernized the car, introducing options such as electric starters, manually operated windshield wipers and reintroduced body color options. None of these ploys, however, allowed the Model T to compete with Chevrolets and Dodges that offered heaters, electric wipers, and a more comfortable ride. When production of the Model T ended at the Highland Park plant in May 1927, Henry Ford's "Universal Car" had introduced the world to the idea personal mobility and transformed where and how we lived. What began as a radical departure from the expensive pleasure cars of the wealthy and innovative simplicity ended as the butt of jokes. Henry Ford's car of the masses had been overtaken and passed by an industry and market it helped to create. The 15 millionth Ford Model T shown here is testimony to Henry Ford's basic belief in the need for an inexpensive, easily maintained, car of the masses. It is also a fitting epitaph for the car of the century.

https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-colle...

From History.com:

May 27, 1927, Henry Ford and his son Edsel drive the 15 millionth Model T Ford out of their factory, marking the famous automobile’s official last day of production.

More than any other vehicle, the relatively affordable and efficient Model T was responsible for accelerating the automobile’s introduction into American society during the first quarter of the 20th century. Introduced in October 1908, the Model T—also known as the “Tin Lizzie”—weighed some 1,200 pounds, with a 20-horsepower, four-cylinder engine. It got about 13 to 21 miles per gallon of gasoline and could travel up to 45 mph. Initially selling for around $850 (around $20,000 in today’s dollars), the Model T would later sell for as little as $260 (around $6,000 today) for the basic no-extras model.

Largely due to the Model T’s incredible popularity, the U.S. government made construction of new roads one of its top priorities by 1920. By 1926, however, the Lizzie had become outdated in a rapidly expanding market for cheaper cars. While Henry Ford had hoped to keep up production of the Model T while retooling his factories for its replacement, the Model A, lack of demand forced his hand. On May 25, 1927, he made headlines around the world with the announcement that he was discontinuing the Model T. As recorded by Douglas Brinkley in “Wheels for the World,” his biography of Ford, the legendary carmaker delivered a eulogy for his most memorable creation: “It had stamina and power. It was the car that ran before there were good roads to run on. It broke down the barriers of distance in rural sections, brought people of these sections closer together and placed education within the reach of everyone.”

After production officially ended the following day, Ford factories shut down in early June, and some 60,000 workers were laid off. The company sold fewer than 500,000 cars in 1927, less than half of Chevrolet’s sales. The Model A’s release beginning in select cities that December was greeted by throngs of thousands, a tribute to Ford’s characteristic ability to make a splash. No car in history, however, had the impact—both actual and mythological—of the Model T: Authors like Ernest Hemingway, E.B. White and John Steinbeck featured the Tin Lizzie in their prose, while the great filmmaker Charlie Chaplin immortalized it in satire in his 1928 film “The Circus.”

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/last-day-of-model-t-pro...