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THE WORLD'S GREATEST CARS

Michael Rose, Tuesday, February 20 2007

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Finally, the 135 automotive experts from around the world cast their votes and reached a decisive conclusion regarding the greatest car to ever grace the highway and that car is a what? You’d think it would have to be a Ferrari or a Rolls-Royce or something else expensive, exotic and rare. In the end they voted for a rather plain Jane, the Model T Ford. The Ford Motor Company may no longer rein as number one but it’s founder knew how create cars that people wanted, needed and bought like crazy.

In 1906, Henry Ford was building cars for a living, and his company was growing.

His cars were selling but Ford wasn't happy with them. They were “rich man’s toys.” He said he wanted to, “build a car for the great multitude of the finest materials available by the best workmen that can be hired . . . so that every man with a decent income can take a ride in the countryside and enjoy God’s great pleasures.”

Ford’s mentor, Thomas Edison, said it was a great idea and if he were younger man, he’d do it himself.

Ford overhauled his factory to produce this new car --- and finally, on October 1, 1908, the Model T chugged out and into history. Ford called it the “Universal Car.” The public affectionately called it the “Tin Lizzie.”

It had a four-cylinder, 20-horsepower engine, stood seven feet high and weighed only12-hundred pounds. The strong and lightweight chassis was made out of vanadium steel.

The Model T wasn’t a speedy race car. Forty miles an hour was about all it could muster . . . just right for the unpaved roads of the day.

But it was a hit. Over 10-thousand Model T’s were sold in the first year, an industry record.

These early buyers could have their 'Tin Lizzie" in black, red, green, French Gray or pearl.

The initial price tag of the Model T was 850 dollars. A steal considering the average car buyer could expect to spend about two-thousand dollars.

By 1913, Henry Ford broke the 200-thousand mark in Model T production. The first moving assembly line made this possible. Conveyer belts transported small parts to the worker. They would install a bolt and the piece would move on to the next workstation.

Ford developed this innovative system after hearing about a Chicago meat packer. There, slabs of meat hung on hooks and moved down the line and were basically disassembled. Ford thought if they disassemble a cow, why not reverse the process and assemble cars. By August of 1913, the chassis assembly line was “moo-ving.”

Ford workers were able to complete a car in 93 minutes. An astonishing speed considering most automakers were still measuring their production time in days.

In 1914, Henry Ford uttered those famous words, "the public can have any color so long as it's black!" The black enamel was the only finish that dried quickly enough for assembly line production.

The fast pace burned out workers who quit in droves until Ford raised wages to 5 dollars a day. This set off riots as job seekers stormed the factory. Not only did higher wages solve the turnover rate it gave his employees enough money to buy one of his cars. Something they did along with buying toasters, refrigerators, furniture, houses and all the other trappings of a burgeoning middle class. Henry Ford is often tarred for his harsh labor practices but his factories gave his workers a boost sent waves of prosperity rippling through the country.

As he raised wages he dropped the price of a Model T to 4-hundred and 90-dollars -- roughly half what it was when the first one rolled off the line. Ford was building nearly 300-thousand Model T's every year by 1914.

A decade later production passed the ten million mark and the price reached it’s lowest point ever: 2 hundred and 90 dollars.

Finally, on May 27, 1927, the last Model T Ford rolled off the assembly line. The world had been changed forever.

Eisenstein summed up the judges’ feelings, “Some of the greatest cars in the world are gorgeous, expensive, fast, technological breakthroughs. But the funny thing is perhaps the greatest car, the Model T, was none of those…what mattered is the fact that it put the world on wheels.”

The Model T garnered the most votes but all of the nominated cars had an impact on the world. There is virtually no aspect of our lives that hasn’t been touched by the car. The major passages of our lives are centered around the car. Thousands of different brands and models have been introduced but these are the five that left the greatest legacies – these are truly, the Worlds’ Greatest Cars. What will be the car of the century or World’s Greatest as the 21^st century comes to a close?

The Model T launched the car revolution in the 20^th century have we seen the car that will set the stage for the next massive transition in the auto world? Could it be the Toyota Prius? Only time will tell.

--Michael Rose

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