What did you do to your T, January 1, 2100

[Been Here Before]

Well we are getting close to the first quarter of the 21 century. Will The model T survive in to the 22st Century?

Born and manufactured in the first quarter of the 20th century, at the same time there were numerous publications on how to repair the Model T. With many learning how to keep the Fliver alive and on the road. The rise of helpful and not so helpful accessories. Surviving scrap drives. And those born and raised with the car are now dying off. As are the secrets of keeping the car on the road.

The car was comfortable to drive at 25 to MPH. Now the new owners want to know how to achieve higher speeds, more horse power. And the search to have a smoother running motor with less vibration.

So the question is, out of the 15 million of vehicles that were to be produced, any guess on how many original or near original Model T's will be in existence by the end of the 21st century?

I saw an estimate for 2017 of about 60,000,including original and the bitsa.

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/70 ... 1512690810

[HPetrino]

The end of the 21st century is nearly 80 years away. To gauge the changes that could occur by then, look back 80 years. In 1940 many T's were still on the road as regular drivers. The technology of television was in it's infancy development stage. Although WWII was well under way in Europe and Asia, the USA was a year away from formally entering it and from having the many developments that would result from it. Computers, the internet, and a zillion other things we take for granted today were only in the imaginations of a few really bright people.

As the years rolled on Truman ordered the use of 2 atomic bombs, Ike told us to be wary of the "military industrial complex", Kennedy was assassinator, Johnson floated his "Great Society", and on and on and on.

At the rate we're going, a simple thing like cash money will no longer exist. Clearly, internal combustion engines will be virtually non-existent. The technological ability to monitor our daily activities for the purpose of assuring "compliance" will be absolute.

I have 4 grandsons, ages 24, 21, 6 and 4. I often ponder the world they will live in when they're my age. I think Model T's will be seen only in museums, but that will be only a minor adjustment. It all boggles the mind. At least I won't be here to deal with it.

[Rich Bingham]

Probably the greatest change wrought in the 20th century was the loss of innocence. In the main, people's' attitudes toward the future were positive before WW I. The future would be better than the past. That positivism extended even to the Great War itself; "make the world safe for democracy" and "the war to end all war" made the carnage and sacrifice seem worth the cost. As the century wore on, that optimism faded. Nowadays, movies, novels and TV shows generally portray the future as a fearsome place, the ruins of cataclysm and one where individual freedom has been severely repressed.

What will become of the Model T ?? In the 58 years since I fell in love with her, I've seen the sea-change in all aspects of the environment in which we repair, restore and drive them. The propensity of most who participate here is to wish a horseless ATV into something it never was meant to be, and it's understandable. The Model T as she was conceived is no more suitable for most of today's driving conditions than the horse she replaced. Like the horse, i believe there will always be those who will love her and find places where she can be driven and enjoyed. There will simply be fewer of us, and fewer places to go.

[John Codman]

I'm not all gloom and doom. Certainly the world has problems - some cause by the ever-increasing Human population, but so far, as time has marched on, things have gotten better. It may well be that the T will be reduced to being a museum piece, but there will still be a few - perhaps running on Propane or Methane, that will still be "runners". At present we are in the midst of what is an unnecessary pandemic, but this too will pass, and hopefully those of us who survive it will pick up the pieces and move forward again. I may not be around to see it, but I really believe that it will happen.

[NU2theT]

I had to read this twice and checked the calendar......yep it's November 15th, not April 1st Anyway, I do recall several years ago the doom and gloom crowd in D.C. were lecturing us on the "evil's" of the internal combustion engine and predicted the end of the world in ten years due to our neglect for "mother earth".
'
Gentleman we have about seven more years left, so get in those T's and drive'm!

[FieldMarshalRed]

I agree with HPetrino. Let us look back to the 1940s when World War 2 was still raging across much of the world. Compare WW2 era vehicles with vehicles of today and see how much they have changed. A lot has changed since the 40s and a lot will change in the decades to come.

[Norman Kling]

I see two possible causes of the end of our enjoying the Model T. I think they will be in museums and personal car collections of vehicles which are no more driven, but very little use on the roads.
Those two causes are: 1. Lack of interest by future generations. 2. Lack or expense of fuel and/or outlawing them because of environmental reasons. Several things I can see. One is a lack of an odometer which even with the older ones cannot be tracked by "big brother" On our last two modern cars we actually get an online readout of the maintenance needed by various computerized sensors on the car. One is the mileage, and the government can also tap into this and tax us according to the number of miles driven. In the past, taxes were and now are levied on the fuel used, but with electric vehicles, they need to tax by miles driven. In California, the gas and diesel powered vehicles will be phased out by 2030, not the sale of fuel yet, however, as the years go by, the demand for the fuel will diminish and the price will go up and availability will go down.
Anyway, by that time I will probably be dead or not driving anymore and those of later generations who are not as interested will make a decision whether to keep the hobby alive.
Norm