MTFCA Forum

Yesterday on a tour we took a break and I was looking at a friend's Speedster. He had a plaque on the back which said 1914 Model T Speedster. My comment was that Henry Ford did not sell a Speedster on the market. The nearest car he sold was the Torpedo.
I said that speedsters were made by other people who changed the body and used after market speed parts. I didn't pay much attention to the engine, so I don't know whether it was a 1914 Block, The car has a brass radiator and the wheels are disk wheels. The car was very nicely built and a good looking car. I didn't get a picture of it. Anyway, he wanted me to post this on the forum and ask what others thought about it.
Norm

After going on a tour that included a number of beautiful speedsters my wife decided she wanted a speedster too so I used a chassis that I had in stock and a later starter engine and made her a speedster from whatever other parts I had in stock. The sheet metal, radiator and lamps are '14 or earlier and the body is home made but I still consider it to be a '14 as I tried to replicate a speedster of that era that I had a picture of. I don't think calling it a 1914 Model T Ford Speedster is misleading. While Ford never made a speedster a lot of speedsters were made out of Model T's.

My friend says his block is 1914.
Norm

Brass speedsters tend to be registered in the 12-14 range depending mostly on what lights they have. Most speedsters are dated by the donor chassis. My Mercury is registered as a 19 even though the body was not manufactured until around 23. Others just get dated by whatever title you might have. There is no wrong for speedsters.

Andy

This is a 10-14 recreation, it is titled as a 1924 from the chassis I got which is quite a mishmash, early springs and frame, 26/27 engine with no serial number, 24 transmission, etc. They are for fun.

Ford never built a depot hack either! But a lot of people have them and enjoy them. Ford didn't build a pickup before 1925, but a lot of those are around also. Non-Ford landaulets, custom bodied touring cars, roadsters, coupes and sedans all were sold by dozens of companies! Should any or all of them not be considered model Ts?

The fact is that all of those, as well as the tens of thousands of speedsters built back in the era are wonderful bits of the fabulous tapestry that is the model T!
Some today are more correctly done than are others. And assigning a "correct" year to them might sometimes be difficult? However they are a part of the model T Ford's history and should be restored as such. They should be seen and enjoyed so that people can better understand the lives their ancestors lived and why they lived those lives and made good use of those non-factory cars.

From 1901 to the 1920's Ford had his hand in many forms of racing to promote the Ford name & product. Directly or indirectly. The term for
these cars was racer, speedcars & Speedsters as far as the terms went. To discount the speedster as not a model T is as absurd as Krulick
& Barny Oldfield never worked for Henry Ford!
Craig.

-
Here is my Ford 1912 "Warren" Speedster with a 1926/27 engine and wheels. It is a lot of fun to drive, gets nothing but positive attention from the public, and it just won First Place at this year's Sun Country Model T Club's Speedster Run.
It's a 1912 Model T Ford Speedster. Even though Andy says; "Speedsters don't have fenders".

So Norm, go ahead, pat your friend on the shoulder, and tell him that it is okay to call his is a "1914 Ford Speedster". ...Then tell him to curse anyone who may argue otherwise. Those crotchety guys get older faster than the rest of us.
-

I liked them even when I was a boy. In fact when I was a Scout, we used to make our own race cars out of a block of wood. We would carve them down and make racing cars and then compete on a small track to see which one went farthest. There were weight restrictions because unlike an actual race, weight would make it go farther because our track was on an incline. I made mine look like a Model T Speedster.
I did not mean that my friend's car is not a Model T. It is and I recognize it as such. It is actually built from a Model T but not as Henry originally built it.
Norm

Steve,i love that car! looks good!