Yahoo Finance Watch a 1915 Ford Model T Hit the Dyno
Cars have changed a whole lot since Henry Ford and crew first put the Model T on offer to the masses. Ford always officially claimed that the T was capable of producing a whopping 20 horsepower, but when was the last time you saw anyone actually check? The team from Merlins Old School Garage on YouTube just strapped their 1915 runabout to a dyno to find out just how much power customers were actually getting during the dawn of the automobile.
The Ford Model T was developed in secret on the third floor of Ford’s Piquette Avenue Plant, with the likes of Ed “Spider” Huff and a teenaged Edsel Ford working on the skunkworks project. The Model T made its public debut in the fall of 1908, ultimately going on to sell more than 15 million units globally by 1927. This particular example is from the 1915 model year, but it’s not entirely stock. That’s to be expected from a car that’s over a century old, with the first half of the video below detailing some needed repairs and restoration work. While it’s eye-opening to see the innards of these early machines, the real action starts around the 35-minute mark.
Under the hood of the Model T sits a 2.9-liter Flathead four-cylinder engine, a flywheel magneto ignition system, and a two-speed planetary gear set. It’s not the most exciting powertrain in the world, but it helped transform transportation as we know it. Ford also sold the engine through 1941 in one form or another, making it one of the longest-serving powertrains to date. Getting the car to hang onto its high gear proved to be the most difficult part of the dyno run, aside from crank starting the old gal.
It doesn’t take all that long to go through the rev range in a car like this, making the run itself rather short. In the end, the car managed to rip off ratings of 12.9 hp and 89 lb-ft of torque at the wheels.
It’s not hard to imagine the rudimentary drivetrain eating up a chunk of the engine’s power, so that figure seems right in line with Henry Ford’s initial claims. The team’s currently building a hotter motor for the car, which might up output by as much as 50 percent. Hopefully we’ll get a follow-up dyno session when that takes place.
You Might Also Like
