MTFCA Forum

Paris, Alcazar d'Été, dépôt de marchandises pour les hôpitaux américains. Une chauffeuse et son aide.

Les volontaires de l'American Fund for French Wounded (AFFW ou commité américain pour les blessés français) assurent l'approvisionnement des hôpitaux américains installés dans Paris. La plupart des membres de cette association sont des femmes. Des Ford T équipent le parc automobile de l'association.

8 Avenue Gabriel, currently Pavillon Gabriel.

The New York Times Sunday, March 18, 1917.

Scene in the former Paris Music Hall, Alcazar D'Ete, in the Champs Elysee.

You can click on the picture to make it bigger.

Interesting! American aid program, American women working on the distribution, but certainly not a US produced car. The cowl is typical of English designs, but the car is LHD. The top folds in one action, unlike its US counterparts. The brass trim on the headlights and sidelamps would indicate a 1915 model.
Allan from down under.

Very interesting car. The USA and to a lesser extent Canadian produce model Ts are well documented about changes and when (about?) that they took place. Cars produced in Great Britain and Europe (as well as South America) were less well documented.
The flat curve rear fender would seem to indicate a 1915 or 1916 car, however, people tend to forget that USA and Canadian roadsters in 1912 also had flat curve rear fenders albeit with a totally different inner skirt! So even though the rear fenders do in fact look to be 1915/'16 fenders, without a better view of the inner skirt one cannot always be certain.
The body, top, and windshield are clearly not standard Ford issue from the USA or Canada. The front of the body does have the British look to it. The car does not appear to have a front door! At least not on the passenger side.
I not being an expert on British built model Ts do wonder about the front wheels and tires. The fronts on this car appear (to me?) to be 30 X 3 size, which Canadian production did not generally use.
Headlamps are brass rim (right has been dented somewhat?). I can't tell for certain if they are post or fork mounted? USA production was post mount, Canadian production was mostly fork mounted headlamps in 1915. I am not sure when Canadian production switched over to post mounted headlamps? I think I have seen a couple photos of early 1917 with fork mounted headlamps? But maybe they were aftermarket? Anybody really know?
The cowl sidelamps appear to have brass tops, but black painted rims. An unusual combination here in the states.
One important detail to note. Is that zooming in on the photo clearly shows that the right front fender has the three rivet mounting bracket. That detail began early in calendar 1915, part way into the 1915 model year! Early 1915 model Ts in the USA still had the four rivet mounting brackets on the front fenders. When Canadian, British, or European, model Ts got the three rivet fenders I do not know for certain. Less certain, but the left front fender also appears to be the three rivet bracket.

Great photo of an unusual model T!

Wayne, does that right fender look OK or was it caught on something and it reared-up?
Neat photos John. Tho I refuse to copy and paste the text for a translation, I enjoyed figuring out the text.

Duey C, The right front fender and the right headlamp are both twisted a bit and dented. So the car apparently had a run in with something! (Possible place for jokes about women drivers, although most men in those days weren't so good either.)
Zoom in close on that headlamp and see the poor brass rim has a nasty ding in it!

Some more photos.