Henry Ford is credited with pioneering the assembly line that allowed for the mass production of affordable automobiles such as the Model T.
At the (very) early days of the company, though, Ford’s first model, which was rather unsurprisingly named the Model A, was put together in one large assembly room at the Mack Avenue plant and each car bore no sequential chassis number.
Even though the Model T is widely known, it’s the Model A that really saved the cash-strapped automaker when on July 13th, 1903, the first three orders came in by Dr. E Pffening, Indiana Automobile Company and Herbert L. McNary. Since the cars were numbered randomly, there’s no way of knowing which one of the three was assembled first.
What we do know, however, is that chassis Number 30 was a Ford Model A with a tonneau body, a US$880 base MRSP and US$30 worth of options. It was delivered to McNary, a butter-maker in Iowa. This car is the only one of the original three that has survived up to this day.
Amazingly, given that it is 109 years old, it has had only five previous owners. Its 8HP, 100 cu. in. two-cylinder engine was completely rebuilt in 2007 and, apart from complete documentation, comes with all original features such as the Kingston carburetor and the coil box stamped with the car number 30.
The oldest surviving Ford will go under the hammer on Thursday, October 11 by RM Auctions at the Antique Automobile Club of America event in Hershey and is expected to fetch anywhere from US$300,000 to US$500,000.
By Andrew Tsaousis
Photo Credits: Simon Clay for RM Auctions
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