Henry Ford developed his first gasoline buggy in the closing years of the 19th Century, like others of its generation, it was a primitive quadricycle powered by a twin-cylinder engine. Commercial motorcar production did not however get underway until 1903 when the Ford Motor Co. was founded. The first commercial offering was the twin-cylinder-engined Model A. As evidenced by this example it was a well-designed and up-to-the-minute car with the engine positioned under the passenger seating, driving to the rear axle by chain, and unlike the contemporary mass-produced Oldsmobile, the Model A featured wheel steering with full-elliptic suspension giving the car a comfortable ride. Production was established in a disused wagon works in Mack Avenue, Detroit. and Henry Ford’s dream was underway.

Early on in production, the bore size was increased to provide 10hp, the timeline for these more potent versions is acknowledged to be after engine number 300, making this one of these more desirable versions. The Model A we offer first came to light in the mid-1940s when father and son Sidney and David Strong were flying a light aircraft over Fairmont, Minnesota and spotted an old car parked outside a shed. The Strong family had been Ford Agents since 1909, so it was fortunate and appropriate that the discovery turned out to be the remains of a 1903 Ford.

Between 1947 and 1953, the Strongs conducted much research on the model that originated the Ford business. They found that the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry also had two examples of the same model, though neither of theirs was entirely complete. A deal was made: both cars were acquired with the agreement that when finished a car would be returned to the Chicago Museum for half of the total restoration cost. This combined with research made from contacts with owners of 10 other surviving examples of the model, and facilities such as the Edison Institute in Dearborn provided the Strongs with enough knowledge to accurately restore these cars, which they did over 3 years at Atwater, Minn. The car was ready comfortable in time for the Ford’s 50th Anniversary of the model and was displayed at the Twin City Assembly Plant that summer. Photos on file show what appears to be the car’s ‘firing up’ party as well as Mr. Strong driving the freshly restored car down Atlantic Avenue, in his home town of Atwater that year.

All of the above is recorded in the AACA’s ‘Northern Lights’ publication in August 1973, where this car features as the cover car, presenting beautifully 70 years on from its first delivery. The family retained the car for approximately 50 years in all, before it passed to the current owner. On acquisition the car was treated to a concours standard restoration in 1994 by Stu Laidlaw. This work included thorough mechanical revision with new crank, pistons, rod and valves as well as host of well-known Laidlaw ‘fixes’ to improve its usability. It was finished ready for the Bermuda tour that year, a tour of a few hundred miles – certainly no mean feat for a car of its age. Its use since then has been relatively modest such that the car presents extremely well today, paintwork, mechanics and interior fabric all showing little wear and the brass lamps and trim being in fine order.

Despite a survival rate of more than 100 of the 1,700 Model As built, they rarely come to market only a handful of cars changing hands publicly in the last 20 years or more. The car is listed in older registers of the model as well as in the new Carlton O. Pate III book on the early Fords ‘The Ford Cars 1903-1909’. A 106 year old American jewel this is an exquisite example of the earliest of Ford’s production, and would grace any car collection, as well as providing an entry to a host of car events including the ever popular British London-to-Brighton Veteran Car Run. It has been entered for 2009 event.