Ford Model A - The Venerable Model A

How popular is the Ford Model A? There are literally hundreds of ways that question can be answered but, to illustrate the A's popularity, all you have to look at is what it was capably able to replace: the Model T.

With a debut in 1908 and an eventual run of over 15,000,000 vehicles over the next 20 years, it would be safe to say the Model T is what gave Ford a considerable base to work from. Yet when production for the T halted in May of 1927 and Ford announced its successor-the Model A-the anticipation for the new vehicle eventually became something close to pandemonium.

Imagine if newspapers today carried full-page, front page headlines about the debut of a new car. But that's what happened when the Model A was introduced and, on December 2, 1927, the newest, most up-to-date vehicle from Ford Motor Company was unleashed on the buying public. More than 600,000 Model As were produced in its first year with a total run over the next three years of almost 4,000,000 vehicles.

Though there were body modifications made in each one of its four-year run, most folks separate the first two years of Model A production from the last two. The main visual difference between early and late Model As is the curvy coachline that runs from the base of the cowl to the bottom of the windshield post or pillar on the first two year's models. The later '30-31 Model As, with their beltline separating the side of the car from the top of the car, looked more like what would follow it: the '32 Deuce.

For hot rodders-even those who started hopping up Model A's only a few years removed from Ford showrooms-Model A roadsters have always been popular. With a smaller frontal area than a '32 or '33-34, Model As were heavily represented on the dry lakes of Southern California in the early '30s as well as at any meet in recent times.

In 1951, when the NHRA needed a profile of a car for a design to be used to identify the landmark racing organization, what type of car did they choose? The Model A roadster, of course. And even though Tom McMullen was more famous for his '32 roadster when he started STREET RODDER magazine in 1972, it was a drawing of a Model A roadster that was placed above the title on every issue of the magazine between its debut in May 1972 through to the November 1977 issue.

Model As have found their way into every aspect of hot rodder's lives, too, including the floor of the show car arena as the first AMBR trophy awarded at the (Grand) National Roadster Show in 1950 was to Bill Niekamp for his '29 Ford roadster. One-time STREET RODDER contributing writer and original Danville Duke, the late Bill Burnham, built Ol' Blue-a '29 Ford roadster that was almost as famous as its owner, while Dennis Varni showed he wasn't afraid to take his AMBR-winning A roadster 'cross country and back a few times just to prove you could!

And though vintage tin was not as hard to find in the '70s as it is today, there was a need for some folks to recreate their favorite cars in fiberglass, and a story on a 'glass Model A roadster was featured in the very first issue of STREET RODDER in 1972.

Over the years many companies have reproduced the Model A in fiberglass as an exact replica as well as in phantom form (i.e. versions never produced, such as a three-window coupe), but the hot rod aftermarket has progressed on so many levels that now you can step into a hot rod shop and order an all-steel Model A over the counter and have it delivered to your doorstep.

The first company to do that was the appropriately-named Brookville Roadster out of Brookville, Ohio. Their Model A roadster was the body that launched the company almost four decades ago and, after they built their first replica roadster and took it to a restorer's meet and won first place with it, Brookville Roadster hasn't looked back since.