MTFCA Forum

We’ve discussed this car before, but a few more things keep surfacing, and the car is inching closer to it’s birthplace (Detroit). It’s now near Toronto, and likely will be at Old Car Festival next summer.

But like all good stories, let’s start at the beginning, or as close to the beginning as we are able to.

In early 1907, Henry Ford was quoted in several publications discussing future Ford models. We know he had been planning a light touring time since mid 1906 (or earlier). By this time, A. Y. Malcomson, former co-majority stock holder along with Henry Ford, was long gone, having sold his interest primarily to Ford in the summer of 1906. Meanwhile, Ford had revamped the Model K, and was getting up to speed on Model N production. Sister company Ford Manufacturing was up and running, and models R and K Roadster were about to be introduced. Ford was about to become the largest producer of automobiles in the world.

In it’s February 3rd daily, the San Francisco Examiner interviewed Henry Ford, who along with his family was attending the San Francisco auto show.
Mr. Ford reported “he will shortly put on the market a medium priced six-cylinder touring car along the lines of the four-cylinder runabout.”

Maybe media hype, or possibly a typo by the reporter or newspaper? After all, we all know “Henry Ford hated six cylinders.” And there’s no pressure from Malcomson and those pesky investors “forcing” him to build a six.

However, there’s more.

During the late fall early winter 1907 auto shows, Henry Ford again reiterated his intention to build what would become the Model T, along with this from “Horseless Age,”November 16th, 1907: “that a six cylinder runabout will be built similar to the present four cylinder car, the cylinders the same size and with a pair of them added on a lengthened chassis of the four cylinder runabout type.”

Time passed, and eventually the long promised Model T appeared in October 1908. Meanwhile the idea of a light six faded into history.

To be continued...........

This story may have ended with statements attributed to Henry Ford that a light six was going to be offered later in 1907 and then for 1908. Over the years Ford was rumored planning to build cars that didn’t make it to production. Among these was the 1904 16 hp air cooled car advertised, then dropped before production began.

In this case, there’s more. During the summer of 1908, Henry Ford is seen driving a runabout that is overtaking more powerful cars in the Detroit area. First, an article in the July 30 1908 issue of “The Automobile” titled “Henry Ford’s Little Runabout Joke:”


This was followed by newspaper accounts in August about Ford and his six cylinder runabout:


What we’re about to find out is, Henry Ford’s “little runabout” was far from, mechanically, “a joke.”

Nice to see your research postings again! I look forward to more installments.
Thank you.

Very enjoyable reading about Henry the jokester. That one I would have like to have seen in person as he passed and left them in the dust.

Looks like the car coming to Canada,which of course it is!

Love the History and all your research. Happy New Year. Thanks

Rob, Thanks for this compelling story... We'll be glad to see it in person at the OCF.

Keith

I’m probably the luckiest guy on the planet. Or at least in Nebraska. The tree’s still lit, and I’ve encountered some of the rarest Ford’s there are.
My good friend in Australia has owned the light six for years, and has now passed it on to my good friend in Canada. The light six appears to me, to be an extension of what Henry Ford was all about. Light weight, smooth horsepower, and affordable transportation.

What I’ve learned this time around is, this isn’t your grandfather’s (or great, or great great) Model N. This is a light six with an attitude. The prototype light six Henry Ford and his designers built wasn’t just a Model N with two more jugs. It wasn’t just a Model T with two more holes. It has a 3 3/4 inch bore (same as Model N and T), with 5 inch stroke! The Model N had a 3 3/8ths inch stroke, or 155 cubic inch motor. Our T’s have 3 3/4 inch bore by 4 inch stroke, for 177 cubic inches.

The light six has the same piston (bore), 3 3/4, with a 5 inch stroke. In other words, this critter has 331 cubic inches! In an N frame and body! No wonder it was running circles around the “big cars” of Detroit. It has a horsepower to weight ratio off the charts.

I had presumed the light six was an N or T motor, with two more cylinders. However it’s an entirely different animal.

Photos comparing the light six with our N, from each side:

Notice the sumps for each rod, to allow the much larger throw of the rods on the top left of the light six motor:
This Ford Model N had a Chevy small block 327 in an NRS frame. No wonder Henry Ford was running everything else on the streets of Detroit into the ground.

Oh boy! Your 6-40 roadster, the super-T racing car, and this "N" should all be together at the next OCF! Three of Fords early and fastest together. Incredible!

I see the timer position was improved!! WOW!! Bud.

Outstanding - what interesting discovery of and putting it all together. Over 100 years later we’re still discovering Henry.

Thanks guys. Bud, the first Model N also had a front mounted timer. We suspect this was a later 1906 or early 1907 built motor. It’s quite interesting, with the lower crankcase resembling a K or the six cylinder racer more than an NRS crankcase. It also has a pad and hole in the crankcase for a rear driver magneto.

1907 six cylinder racer (rebuilt sometime after the October 1907 Kulick wreck):

Six cylinder N with rod dips:

I noticed what looked like a drive at the back but i thought it might have been a later add on for a self commencer or? I see there are no priming cups as on the N engine. Are all the valves on the 6 cyl camshaft driven? Nice to see you back on the forum!!! Bud.

Bud, while our N and many i’ve seen have priming cups, I don’t believe they came that way from Ford. The same applies to the K. Both K’s I’ve had along with another K have cups, but Tim Kelly’s didn’t, and I don’t believe they originally came that way.

Rob,So the head was built that way for dual ignition? My question about the camshaft i was wondering if the extra places in the head were of the atmosperice type of valve?? Is this car in running condition,or plans to put it that way? Thank you for all you do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bud.

Bud, It is a bit hard to understand in our modern sense, however, at that time, casting and gasket technologies did not make a removable engine head as we know it today practical. Henry Ford was not the first. But he and his engineers were among the first to perfect the idea. Among the very first practical "removable head" engines were specially built model N Ford engines built in Ford's experimental "lab". The model T Ford when it hit the market late in 1908 was one of the most advanced cars available! It was the first significant production car to have four cylinders cast in a single block! As well as the first major production car with a removable head!
The Ford models N and K, like most other cars of their day, had cylinders cast (in pairs) with the cylinder itself and the cylinder head cast as a single piece. While this required very complicated casting patterns, and machining techniques, it eliminated the need for that pesky gasket and mating surfaces that nobody had yet made work reliably. That design required a complicated valve arrangement, using a set of complicated patterns to form the combustion dome and valves. The machining and installation of the valves had to be done through holes in the top of the combustion dome,and then the holes needed to be plugged with threaded plugs over and slightly larger than the valve's head. That is what those two round things are alongside each cylinder. Most (not all) engine manufacturers placed a spark plug in one (or both if dual ignition) of the valve plugs. Some companies put priming cups in the other, many did not. However, a lot of owners or mechanics put priming cups in engines after-market.

The six cylinder "model N" is an incredible and somewhat important bit of history. I am saddened by the circumstances, but in a way happy that the car is coming back home. It would be wonderful for thousands of people to be able to see it, and get a short course in the history of why it is so special.

Rob, I do hope you continue to be one of the luckiest people on the planet! You have played with and truly enjoyed some of the best early Ford history there is! Some of us that do not have that opportunity do like to follow along.
Thank you for sharing.

Is this car in running condition, or plans to put it that way?

To answer Bud's question, here are two images from some footage I took back in 2014 when the car was at a National Veteran Car Tour.

Best regards, John Page, Australia.

Wayne, thank you for the excellent explanation. John, thank you for the pics, and email video. The link below shows Dave driving this incredible piece of Ford history:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6qckg9s6lxfvs ... M.3gp?dl=0

Thanks to all!! Bud.

Digging up an old topic here, is this the Model J #2 that Carl Pate refers to in his Encyclopedia?

Jem, yes, although I don’t subscribe to the “J” designation. I do believe the motor was built in late 1906 or early 1907, as Henry Ford mentioned a light six coming into production by early 1907. For anyone interested, this important “Neanderthal” or early Ford history has re-located to Canada. I expect to see it at the Paynesville and New London to New Brighton tours this summer, as well as Old Car Festival. The new owner also confirmed the bore/stroke is larger than an NRS, so the motor has substantially more displacement than NRS or T motors. I suspect this rascal will scoot!

Now, if we’re able to coax Kim and Waylon to bring the B to these events, what a “Ford” summer it will be.


Magneto mounting plate and mag drive shaft port:

Hm - it could look like one should start saving up money for a visit to this years OCF.....

Could you post a video of that engine running close up? I have never had the chance to hear one run close up. Wondered if it sounded like the T or not.

thanks.

Good stuff, Rob. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Nice to see this bounce back up! That engine is incredible to say the least. Thank you Rob for the additional pictures.