1927 Model A's

[ian Simpson]

The other night at a club meeting we got into a discussion about the possibility of a "1927 Model A".

I believe that the first Model A's were built and sold in the fall 0f 1927 and that is possible that any sold in the UK before January 1928 would be registered as 1927 vehicles regardless of what Ford called them.

With the varying regulations across the USA and Canada is it possible that some were registered as 1927 vehicles in N. America?

[Mike V. Florida]

I would say yes if, they were sold/registered before the end of the year. We have heard often here about cars that have a year newer registration/title then the manufacture of the car.

[abachman3]

I have a 1931 American Austin. We know that it was built in 1930, however, as there are other American Austins with later serial numbers that are licensed as 1930 models.

[katy]

IIRC, in the US the Model A debuted on December 2nd, 1927. Does any one know when it first came out in Canada?

[johnbuckley]

Originally Posted by ian Simpson

...... and that is possible that any sold in the UK before January 1928 would be registered as 1927 vehicles regardless of what Ford called them.....

We have no verified record of any 1927 model still existing here in the UK, and in fact the earliest advertisement I've found mentioning the presence of a Model A Ford in the UK is in a newspaper on 4th Jan 1928 stating "....new Ford... first public exhibition in Manchester ... City Exhibition Hall Manchester Jan 11th-14th". However Nevins and Hill Ford on six Continents implies an A was shown in Dec 1927 at the Holland Park Show London. ( no supporting evidence found for this ) Thus presumably one had been shipped over from USA in time for that event as it is most unlikely that the Trafford Park Manchester plant had swung into A production by then. Late spring '28 seems to be the time when Trafford Park got back in serious production

[Brad in Germany]

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Originally Posted by johnbuckley

We have no verified record of any 1927 model still existing here in the UK, and in fact the earliest advertisement I've found mentioning the presence of a Model A Ford in the UK is in a newspaper on 4th Jan 1928 stating "....new Ford... first public exhibition in Manchester ... City Exhibition Hall Manchester Jan 11th-14th". However Nevins and Hill Ford on six Continents implies an A was shown in Dec 1927 at the Holland Park Show London. ( no supporting evidence found for this ) Thus presumably one had been shipped over from USA in time for that event as it is most unlikely that the Trafford Park Manchester plant had swung into A production by then. Late spring '28 seems to be the time when Trafford Park got back in serious production

John,

Here is your "supporting evidence" to back-up what Nevins and Hill stated:

These are two original press photos, dated 7 December 1927, showing the introduction of the Ford Model A at the Holland Park Hall (according to the printed text on the back of these photos):

The New "Sports Coupé":


...and The New "Touring Car":


Look closely at the details - Note not only the right hand drive and the open bumpers, but check out the interesting "wing mounted side lights", which, according to "The NEW FORD CAR" by E.T.Brown (London 1928) p. 81, "A feature of the side lamps, which are wing mounted, is that the inside can be extracted for use as an inspection lamp (Fig. 34)."





Brad in Maryland

[Steve Plucker]

Originally Posted by johnbuckley

We have no verified record of any 1927 model still existing here in the UK, and in fact the earliest advertisement I've found mentioning the presence of a Model A Ford in the UK is in a newspaper on 4th Jan 1928 stating "....new Ford... first public exhibition in Manchester ... City Exhibition Hall Manchester Jan 11th-14th". However Nevins and Hill Ford on six Continents implies an A was shown in Dec 1927 at the Holland Park Show London. ( no supporting evidence found for this ) Thus presumably one had been shipped over from USA in time for that event as it is most unlikely that the Trafford Park Manchester plant had swung into A production by then. Late spring '28 seems to be the time when Trafford Park got back in serious production

John,

I am sure you tried, but if not, did you try a search of the old newspapers of the times for an article about this "show"?

Pluck

[johnbuckley]

Originally Posted by Steve Plucker

John,

I am sure you tried, but if not, did you try a search of the old newspapers of the times for an article about this "show"?

Pluck

My historic newspaper searches have been restricted to the "Manchester Guardian "which was a major national UK paper but somewhat Manchester orientated hence the name! ( Trafford Park as I'm sure you are aware is an industrial estate in Manchester.) In later years the newspaper dropped the " Manchester " bit and became simply "The Guardian" which still exists.

PS D'you think they put the sidelights on these very early show-cars when they arrived in the UK?- I wonder if they had time to wire them up for the show or if they were just screwed in in haste!

[Brad in Germany]

Originally Posted by johnbuckley

....However Nevins and Hill Ford on six Continents implies an A was shown in Dec 1927 at the Holland Park Show London. ( no supporting evidence found for this ) .....

John,

If you need more "supporting evidence" about the 2-10 December 1927 exhibition at the Holland Park Hall, here is a photo of the cover of the official catalogue/program from that event:


....and the schedule of events (note the Authorized Ford Dealers and their senior staff by-invitation-only viewing from 10am-2pm on 2 December 1927):


....and here is the list of the Model A's that were on display:


....and photos from the catalogue of the artist renderings of the cars that were on display (plus one extra):




....and the list of the commercial vehicles that were on display:


...and photos from the catalogue of the artist renderings of the commercial vehicles that were on display:



The catalogue consists of 100 pages describing everything from the title of the music played each hour on each day, to advertisements from local Ford and Fordson dealers and Ford/Fordson accessory and commercial custom body builders along with maps of the various halls and lists of the dealers at each of the booths, etc, etc.

Brad in Maryland

[Hoogah]

Originally Posted by Brad in Germany

John,

If you need more "supporting evidence" about the 2-10 December 1927 exhibition at the Holland Park Hall, here is a photo of the cover of the official catalogue/program from that event:

....and here is the list of the Model A's that were on display:

Brad in Maryland

I was interested to see that the word Phaeton was replaced with Tourer and Touring Car in this program. Was the Phaeton term peculiar to USA, and not used in the UK or Europe?

[iverson]

in illinois titles did not come out until 1934 and I dont think most people bothered with them until the next owner registered the car with a bill of sale and then it was what ever year you put down thats why I think a lot of guys thought to make the car as new as possible except with real old cars then they made them older.

[Model A Man]

I seem to remember the jewel city model A club in Glendale California has/had a member with a 1927 model A

[Bick in New Zealand]

Just love those RHD photos Brad.

Just to add a little fuel to the fire, according to the Dearborn engine release logs, the first engines released for RHD were, A1481, A1484, and A 1496 on December 5th 1927.

The December 9th 1927 Autocar magazine has an extensive article on the New Ford and pictures RHD roadster, coupe, saloon (tudor) and chassis, as well as the above two models. When you look closely at Brad's photos, you can see they had some English content as well. I wonder whether the ones shown at the Holland Park exhibition were the small bore 'AF' versions. As these motors get a mention in the article. It also amazes me that they could exhibit the full range, of cars, when the rest of the 'Ford' world was screaming for them. Here in NZ, the A first went on display in May 1928. We must have been down the pecking order a bit.

[Special Coupe Frank]

As far as "model year" goes, the first official model year for the "new Ford" Model A, was 1928.

Yes, there were examples produced in late 1927.

The idea of annual model-year updates was still somewhat new, and not yet universally accepted across the entire industry, especially where heavy trucks were concerned.

And then there's the whole matter of vehicle registration & title provenance.

It gets fuzzy.

When WW II ended, some held-over 1942 models were released for public sale in late 1945, and were sold & registered as "1945" vehicles, even though there were no "official" 1945 model cars produced in the US.

If I owned an early A, produced in late 1927, I'm sure I would want to highlight that fact, but I'm not sure I would refer to it as a "1927"...

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Chief didn't get a Birth Certificate until '39 & through a mistake, it showed him born in '13, instead of '12.
IF, you didn't know when you were born, HOW OLD WOULD YOU BE???
Bill Old

[johnbuckley]

Brad...brilliant pictures .... no doubt about those definite supporting evidence indeed...never seen those before... fantastic

[john charlton]

The small bore block was cast at the Fordson tractor plant in Cork Ireland and machined at the Trafford Park Manchester plant . I doubt if any of the pictured cars were small bore . All small bore engines were prefixed "AF" so those early RHD numbers would have been 24 HP . I wonder what makes an engine RHD ??? I cant think of anything .I think those numbers could relate to complete vehicles maybe.

John in very cold dark rain on the way Suffolk County England .

PS Brad thanks for the pics ,brilliant !!!

[john charlton]

Thinking about it these must be very very early cars . They were in London on 7th Dec 1927 and no doubt shipped in complete fom Detroit . The Ford vessel would have to been loaded in early November . A steam cargo vessel back then made around 10 knots on a good day across 3000 miles of ocean and then the transit handling and exibition setup on top of that .

John in same place same weather .

[Brad in Germany]

Note also the Dunlop tyres (tires)..... probably not from the USA.

Brad in sunny Maryland

[msmaron]

Outstanding question and topic for us E28 folks and all Model A enthusiast!