Ford Modell T
       

This car - even Tin Lizzy called - has contributed greatly during its construction period to mass motorization in USA. It was - the first car - produced in assembly line with fixed cycle times for the installation of individual components. While in Europe a few thousand vehicles crowed on the roads, it been millions in America very soon after the beginning of the 20th century. The Ford Model T was built between 1908-1928 in over 15 million copies, a record, that until much later stopped the VW Beetle. The price fell because of rising production numbers and more greater rationalization to about one-third. Due to the large demand, Ford could offer their workers almost double the salaries and the 40 hours per week in 1914, but prevented for very long time trade union activities.

A 2.9-liter four-cylinder delivers 15 kW (20 hp) at 1800 rpm and had almost 100 Nm of torque. This nearly 60 km / h was achieved, but with a fuel consumption of 12 litres/100km and more. Interestingly were the three pedals, whereat the left were needed for the first gear and the median for the reverse gear. The brake was on the right side. A gearshift was not needed, but one start-up briefly in first gear and then moved to the almost exclusively used second, in which no pedal operation was necessary. Therefore the engine speed was operated via a lever on the steering wheel.

So there was a pedal that was needed to change the gear. This had to be brought into a neutral position by easy operation. Then was released the handbrake acting to the rear axle. Now kick down the pedal just mentioned, so not only the first gear is switched, but also is coupled. But don't forget the acceleration. By completely letting go of the pedal, the second gear is engaged. Foot and hand brake acted on the same axis, front drum brakes were not. At this point, the model T is absolutely incomparable to today's vehicles. But since a car only with the rear axle slowed significantly better than a coach, this type of brake sufficed for a long time. First 1909 the four-wheel brake was invented. The Ford Model T did not get these brakes until the end of its production.

The Ford T proved to be at the beginning of its construction period particularly suitable for the still poor road conditions in America. Its design shows that for off-road driving is not necessarily a all-wheel-drive, but needed is a large ground clearance and plenty of torque to the drive wheels. Besides the production methods, at the car were other new technologies realized. Thus the alloy of steel with vanadium brought not only for the chassis, but also in bodywork weight advantages. The engine had standing valves, which were all on one side of the engine block directly driven by the camshaft. In one piece cast cylinder block and a removable cylinder head were not granted at that time. The technical foundations were so good, that initially of the Ford T still developed racing versions.