Henry Ford III on Model T plant: 'I still gets goosebumps every time I walk in the door'
The vehicle Henry Ford brought to world at a price more folks could afford continues to resonate with generations of fans — some famous, some not so famous, and Ford family members.
Ford sold almost 15 million Model Ts between 1908 and 1927 as it literally put the world on wheels, as the saying goes, for the first time.
“The two inventions that have had the biggest impact on people’s lives are the Model T and the computer,” said entertainer Jay Leno, a diehard auto collector with 250 cars, including a 1927 Model T.
Bill Ford, great grandson of the founder, who serves as executive chairman of the Dearborn, Michigan-based company, said: “The impact of the Model T is hard to overstate. I love this company and I love our history. The Model T cemented Ford’s role as a disruptor, and a company that leads through innovation and adding to our customers’ and employees’ lives.”
He added: "Today, that spirit lives on within the company."
You can also count Henry Ford III — great-great grandson and namesake of the patriarch of the automaking family that brought the Model T to life at Ford's Piquette Avenue Plant 115 years ago — among the millions of devotees to the vehicle.
We talked about its impact last fall as he and I walked through the three-level facility where it all came together known today as the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Museum in Detroit. It’s open to the public and looks pretty much as it did when Henry Ford changed the mode of transportation and manufacturing with his affordable Model T.
“I still get goosebumps every time I walk in the door,” Ford III said of the Piquette Avenue Plant.
Ford III is part of the next generation of family members involved with the company. He’s the son of Cynthia and Edsel Ford II (who is the son of Henry Ford II). Edsel retired from the company's board of directors in 2021 and Ford III replaced him. Bill Ford, who also is Edsel Ford II’s cousin, is executive chair of Ford and his daughter, Alexandra Ford English, is on the board. Other family members who work for the company include Elena Ford, who recently was named chief dealer engagement officer working with 10,000 dealers globally. She is a granddaughter of Henry Ford II.
Celebrating the Model T has become part of the family business and why not as it is THE vehicle that put Ford on the map.
Every time the Model T has celebrated a big anniversary of its debut — at 50 years, 100 years and 115 years in 2023 — events are held to commemorate the “Tin Lizzie” as the Model T was known. We talked about its longevity and popularity as we looked at the secret room on Piquette’s third level where Henry Ford and his tight knit team toiled to bring the Model T to life.
The room is small — about the size of a two-car garage. Henry Ford had a rocking chair in one corner where he spent hours watching, and weighing in as prototype after prototype was made by hand, evaluated and made again. A replica of his mother’s favorite rocking chair now sits in the room.
“He spent over three years on it,” Ford III told me of the Model T. “He knew he wanted to make a car for the middle class — something that was unheard of back then as cars were only made for the wealthy.”
Ford III told me his great-great grandfather didn’t let failure get in his way. He started two auto companies before launching Ford Motor Co. in 1903.
We stopped on the second level of Piquette where scores of Model Ts are lined up, in different colors taking the wind out of the saying long attributed to Henry Ford that “you can have any color car you want, as long as it’s black.”
“The first 13,000 Model Ts produced at the Piquette Plant were either Carmine Red or Brewster Green, plus a small percentage were made in a light gray,” said Jill Woodward, president of the Ford Piquette Plant Museum. “It wasn’t until 1914 at the Highland Park Plant when Ford scaled up for mass production that one color, black, was chosen for speed and cost efficiency.”
The Model T’s reign as one of the most popular vehicles ever endures.
Dave Pericak, director of Ford’s Electric Truck Programs, has also served as global director for Ford Raptor, Mustang and the Bronco family, engineering director on the electric Mustang Mach-E and Mach-E GT programs, and was instrumental in the establishment of Ford Performance where he had responsibility for vehicles including development of the GT road and race car, which returned Ford to victory at Le Mans in 2016.
He’s a voracious auto enthusiast and while his daily ride is an electric F-150 Lightning, he owns a 1968 Mustang, a 2000 Mustang GT convertible, 2012 Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca and a 2015 Mustang Limited Edition.
But he’s most enthused about this latest edition.
“A 1927 Model T ... in green!” he told me.
“I came from a blue-collar background and had no connection to the auto industry. I got a job with Ford and never looked back. Everything I have is thanks to Ford and I wanted to pay homage to that and I couldn’t think of a better vehicle to buy than a Model T,” he added.
The engineer had one dilemma he hadn't contemplated when he bought the Model T.
Model T owner Leno, whom Pericak had befriended, gave him the heads up about it.
“While I was visiting his garage, Jay asked me if I knew how to drive it,” Pericak said. “I wasn’t expecting to need driving instructions. Jay told me the throttle is on a stalk instead of a pedal for a start.”
Pericak keeps his Model T in his garage in metro Detroit and said, “Every time I drive it, people stop and stare, and ask me about it.”
It’s history repeating itself as that’s the reaction people had to the Model T when it burst onto the scene and changed America forever.
Carol Cain is a columnist for Detroit Free Press and senior editor/host of CBS Detroit’s “Michigan Matters."
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Henry Ford III on Model T plant: 'I still gets goosebumps'
