Woo hoo 65mph

[COOTER]

Correction:
Firestone 600X16 tires listed at an outside diameter of 27.91 inches tall.

[oliverguy]

45 to 50 seems about right for my car. It will run all day like that. We have shut in our club that likes to drive fast. He also likes to fix engines

[Robert Putnam]

I guess a lot of people like to know what their car will do.. I'm no different, Got 60 MPH out of my Town Sedan. The motor was moaning and I was a little freaked out.... actually pretty scared. The other day I came around a rather sharp turn a little faster than I might have liked. That also was a little more than unnerving ! Bottom line I would say that at speeds approaching 50 MPH or over the Model A is a veritable death trap. Anything out of the norm would send it bouncing into the buckwheat, where I'm sure with out any hesitation, it would fold up like an egg shell. Having driven my A at speeds previously mentioned, I feel rather stupid for doing so. My advice to anyone who might like to attempt it in the future... Don't do it. Don't temp fate. Now the other day I drove my A along the shore road at between 35 and 40 MPH and had the most pleasant drive. A beautiful sunny day, the sun shining off the water... why would you want to go any faster.. relax enjoy life. " It's not a race "

[Kevin in NJ]

As usual lots of wrong ideas.
Some history and some facts.

The Model A was designed to run 60 MPH. Ford advertised the car will run that fast and people ran them that fast, yes even on the crappy roads of the day.

Proper restored to factory tolerances, not to be confused with Judging Standard Correct, the Model A will comfortably run speeds in the 60+ range. Yes, even for extended periods of time.

How do I know this. Quite frankly we have always run our A's that fast. Even not knowing what we know today about the the engine balance, that is running with not so fully balanced engines and not having the better tools to make the brakes work even better. We have always been fairly careful on parts selections and attention to details when mechanically building the car.

Now do we always run 60, heck no. I can tell you that at 45 to 50 MPH speed limits on the local roads the A is extremely confident to drive. You can out drive the under powered 50's cars. The car is also EXTREMELY reliable. With minimal service such as proper oiling and greasing the car just goes.

As soon as you start mixing in worn parts and not paying attention to details now you get cars that have issues. Quite frankly there are a lot of local cars that the owners will tell you are 45 MPH cars that I would NOT consider safe over 30 MPH.
It is quite interesting to watch a person used to an improperly restored car drive a car that is tight. We have caused more than one person to have a different view of what a Model A can do with a simple test drive.

There is no tempting fate, there are only lots of excuses.
There are safe properly mechanically restored cars and there are cars with issues that are not as safe.

All the correct information to properly mechanically restore your car back to the safe 60 MPH factory car is available for FREE on the internet. It only takes some money, some time and the true interest in properly restoring your car to factory using known facts and factory prints.

Ahhh
But what could I know about all this?

[Jim.Morris2831]

Kevin I take a little respectful issue with your jump from Ford designed the A to run at 60 and so therefore it's safe to do so. Ford adverstised around a lot of selling points and 55-60 mph was a sexy selling point for 1928-1931. I think that it's short-sighted to cite Ford's advertising about speed from an era when safety was absolutely NOT a consideration and extrapolate that to today to mean the A is safe to drive at high speed. If you wreck in a Model A at any speed, even 20mph, you stand serious injury that you would likely not experience in a modern car that has air bags, crumple zones, collapsable steering wheel, padded dash, doors that will stay closed when impact happens, head rests, etc. Wreck in an A and you have your face on the steering wheel and metal dash or worse. We're not talking about whether the A can run at 60+ because many can, not talking about whether it can be braked at and steered from 60 because barring an emergency many can, we're talking about whether the car is safe at those high speeds given the unexpected and quite simply they're not. Seat belts in an A are a must and about the only safety device that can be installed, but wreck at high speed and I think that even with seat belts you're likely dead meat and a very quick goner. Be safe, not sorry, especially if you have passengers.

[Chris in CT]

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Hi Christian,
You seem like a nice guy, the type of person we'd like to see around for a long time. I had my own '29 roadster up to 70 mph when I was stress-testing a prototype for the Burlington crankshaft (std rear end - the engine sounded like a turbine!). I think that if I'd hit a twig in the road I would have lost control of the car. It felt very unstable and and unsafe at that speed. I swore to myself that if I didn't kill myself, or my wife didn't accomplish that for me, I'd never do it again. The fact that a model A will go 65 or 70 does not mean that therefore I should do it. The car works best at 45 to 50 mph, and I feel that it is safe, and that I have control over it at those speeds. Happy Motoring!

[Kurt in NJ]

In the latest Model A news there is an article about a drive from Los Angeles to Phoenix-- 892 miles, and that they averaged 62.2 mph in one direction, and 60.01 in the other ---and to average that speed through the desert and mountains they must have driven faster ---this was done with a 3 year old car with 64000 miles on it, given what the roads at the time were the car must have been doing 65+ as much as it could ---this is with a stock engine --no overdrive, no "touring engine" ,no insert bearings ---just a 3 year old car with 64000 miles that had been run hard all it's life to prove the quality of a brand of motor oil.

I have driven prize winning "restored" cars that I was scared to drive 35, and ratty taped in plastic roof blanket seat covered cars that were comfortable and confidant to drive at 65( 4 PROPERLY working shocks make the car a joy to drive)---although the roof flapped a lot at 65

[frank mcdaniels]

My 84 year old father that introduced me to model As many many years ago, always claimed the true test of a properly tuned model A was if it would start out in high gear from a dead stop. Not how fast it would go. Frank

[Rock Hornbuckle]

Originally Posted by christian

I know this isn't much of a post, but I just took my newly driver restored fordor s/w on the highway and was able to maintain 65mph, GPS confirmed woo hoo, now that's fast......

Congrats on a well done restoration. You must've well tuned the engine and had supurb running gear, with tight steering and suspension. Thanks for sharing.

[christian]

Just to clarify, the point of my post was simply to happily report that my fordor is capable of 65mph, nothing else. I had no intention of this becoming an argument over how the A should or should not be driven....... Just excited to report that for a brief moment...... I attained the speed, that's all, just wanted to see what it could do.

[jkeesey]

Gotta love the negative Nancies. Good job Christian.