Yesterday I kind of went off the deep end and bought a 1915 T touring. It appears to be mostly correct 1915, and is an older amateur restoration. I took it for a short drive, as it is not licensed, and it seemed to run OK.
I bought my first Model T in 1962. It was a 1926 Tudor Sedan, fully restored, for $ 475.00, serial number 12,745,000. Does anyone here have it?
I have owned a few since then, some stock, some with overheads on them. All have been fun.
I should get it home in a few days and will start checking it out thoroughly. It will also need some work to pretty it up, but I am hoping it will be a good car to have some fun with.

Hi Keith I recognized your username kmcoldcars from the Corvette forum. Congrats on buying the model t. I also have a model t (1927 Tudor).Also have 4 corvettes. Mostly just lurk on the Corvette forum username is bullship.

Pictures?

Happy new car. Those '15s are a lot of fun.
Rich

Hi Keith !

You been around a few years so I can’t really say “ Welcome “.

Congratulations !

FJ

Was it a "local" T Keith ?

If your old Tudor was a Canadian model, I believe a Jim Kelsey in Puyallup ended up with it.

Thank you all.
Steve, the car is in Silverdale. What I need now is to get it moved to my house, as I do not want to drive it from Silverdale. Yes, Jim Kelsey has my old 1927 Canadian Tudor. The painting was done here at my house.
George, I have a 1991 turquoise coupe that is supercharged, and a 2000 red convertible Corvette. I just recently sold my 2002 Z06 as I did not think I needed 3 Corvettes.
Here are my current cars.

Now the fun part begins. Going over it with a fine tooth comb and replacing incorrect items, such as Stece Jelf's personal peeve , Phillips head screws . Nice looking car by the way. Does the engine numbers show correct for '15 ??

All beautiful cars.

NICE Touring! Thank you for sharing pics of your cars.
Drove a friend's 91 manual rag-top several years ago. I pulled my wits about me and pounded on that little Chevy. Man, it was FAST!
If I had any wits left, a super charged would be a hot one.
:-)

My 91 is a 6 speed manual. Stock the car makes 250 HP. With the supercharger set at a low boost it makes about 375 HP. According to the dyno it made more HP and torque below 4500 RPM than my slightly modified 2002 Z06 with 440 HP did. Above 4500 RPM the Z06 made more. When you step on the gas pedal the 91 really takes off and is much quicker than my stock 2000.
The 20 HP 1915 will be much different to drive.

George, I also dislike Phillips head screws on old cars. I did upholstery on collector cars for about 25 years and always used slot screws on the old cars. I am now doing the last one I will do for anyone, which is a 1934 Cadillac V-16 for someone I have known since the early seventies.
The engine number of the T is 935XXX which makes it a VERY late 1915.

Ah, the '15 model year; how I just love it—and you will too! -As if you didn't already know, this was a brass-bearing compromise between the old and the new.

It had electric headlamps, BUT they were trimmed in brass. -It had the new-style, cylindrical cowl and tail-lanterns, BUT they, also, were trimmed with brass. -The upholstery had the new, parallel-tufted seat-backs, BUT the seat bottoms were still diamond-tufted. -They had "wrap-around" rear fenders, BUT they were uncrowned and flat. -And though the '15 still had that magnificent brass radiator, it featured the all-new, swoopy, stamped steel cowling which more nicely balanced out the design with the illusion of a longer hood—at a nice little consolation in exchange for the loss of that sweet cherrywood dashboard. -And it had hood louvers, which anybody with any sense knows, looks so much better than a hood without louvers. -

As Model T Fords go, the '15 had good ergonomics and decent foot-space for the driver among the lever and pedals (Not so with some of the subsequent all-black, steel cars which place the floor lever precisely in the crook of the driver's left knee).

The '15 model-year was so popular that a great many later vintage Flivvers were surreptitiously "converted" into brass 1915's, and such counterfeits abound to this day. -

And finally; because the Horseless Carriage Club of America arbitrarily declared for all the world that 1915 was the close of The Brass-Era, this model-year would become, by a wide margin, the least expensive admission ticket to that exclusive club.

I sure hope you have a real one. There sure are a lot of phoney ones out there. 1915's are great cars if they are real.

I see two possible reasons for the September serial number.
1 It's the original engine and the 1916 car has been converted to a 1915.
2 It's a 1915 car with a 1916 replacement engine.
Either way, it's a swell car and you should have a grand time with it.

According to the MTFCI Judging Guidelines, the 1915 model year extended into October of 1915.

Now you have me wishing I could get around to fixen my grandpals 61 Tburd!

Bob,
The HCCA is not such an exclusive club. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in brass era horseless carriages. Voting members are required to own a car built before the end of the 1915 calendar year. This includes all Model Ts made in '15, not just model year '15s. Most local HCCA chapters host tours that allow nickel era cars (up through '27) as well.

Welcome to the '15-'16 club. Lots of minor changes between the years, and they were not all applied at the same time. And to complicate things even more, many '16s were "back-dated" to '15s for multiple reasons; 1)in the '1960s folks thought they should all have brass trim 2) wanting to fit into the HCCA touring guidelines, 3)personal styling--the top three reasons. My '16 is a December '15 car, so it qualifies for HCCA and has very little brass trim as by then the lamps had black rims. But, when I bought the car, the previous owner had purchase brass rims for the lamps to "correct" the car (this WAS done by him in the 1960s); fortunately, I did some research and never used the brass pieces (which are repros anyways).
So, have fun, it looks really nice.
David D.

It seems we have a disagreement between sources. The encyclopedia has the 1916 model year beginning with August 1915. That's what I used for this page.

http://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG90.html

I wonder what documentation leads the MTFCI Guidelines to October. If there's conclusive evidence for that I need to change the page.

Paging Larry Smith and Russ Furstnow...

Bob, thanks for the 1915 summary. I have not had time to learn and appreciate the evolution of these cars. Yet. Cheers, Bill