Читать книгу 60 Years Behind the Wheel - Bill Sherk - Страница 23

New Model T Touring, 1912

LEWIS JEFFREY AND HIS WIFE are sitting in this new 1912 Model T touring near the Albuna Town Line and 5th Concession a few miles north of Leamington, Ontario. Its the last year for the fully vertical two-piece windshield and the first year a Model T was available with front doors. American-built Ts had a false door on the driver’s side to reduce the cost of the car. Canadian-built Model Ts had two fully opening front doors because many Ts built here were sold in other provinces and parts of the British Empire where they drove on the other side of the road. British Columbia did not switch from driving on the left until 1923. The Ts sold in these areas had the steering wheel on the right.

Henry Ford pioneered the idea of the steering wheel on the left with the first Model T built in October 1908, at a time when most cars had the wheel on the right. Henry apparently had decided the driver needed to watch the oncoming traffic more closely than the ditch — and this viewpoint was consistent with his goal of building a car that nearly everyone could afford. During its nineteen-year production run, over fifteen million Ts were built. A Ford historian has estimated that 2 percent of these have survived. And 2 percent of 15,000,000 is a staggering 300,000!