Ford snags company's oldest car for $264K

The oldest surviving car sold by Ford Motor Co. is back home.
Bill Ford Jr., executive chairman of the Dearborn automaker, was the winning bidder — spending $264,000 — in an auction this fall for an original 1903 Ford Model A Rear Entry Tonneau.
The car, auctioned by RM Auctions in October, is now in Dearborn, where it will help kick off a year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of Henry Ford's birth. Henry Ford was founder of Ford Motor Co.

"The legacy of Henry Ford includes many lessons from the past that can help us shape our future and make it better," Bill Ford Jr. said in revealing the purchase at an employee event Tuesday. "My great-grandfather is famous for innovations that changed the world, from the Model T to the assembly line to the $5 a day wages. These innovations continue to have a major impact on our lives today."
A series of events will take place next year. Ford has started a website — www.henryford150.com — as part of the celebration. The vehicle will be shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit next month before becoming part of the permanent collection at Ford headquarters in Dearborn.

The Model A Rear Entry Tonneau sold for less than half of its 2007 closing bid of $630,000, according to RM Auctions.

The eight-horsepower cars, sold by Ford from July 1903 to March 1904, retailed for $850, according to an archived ad on the website EarlyFordRegistry.com.
"With its provenance, and it's an early one, it's a great little car," Carlton Pate III, a collector of antique cars and author of "Pate's Early Ford Automobile Encyclopedia," said after the auction. "It's also got a little history behind it."

Pate said three cars were sold on the same day and were stamped with as many as four separate serial numbers in different places, but records show the other two vehicles are no longer in existence, making Bill Ford Jr.'s car the oldest surviving.
The Model A has had five owners during its 11-decade lifespan, the most recent being John O'Quinn, a Houston trial lawyer who died in a 2009 auto accident. The car comes with extensive documentation which details its history and condition. RM said the car has performed "flawlessly," including during the famous London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 2003, the same year the car turned 100 years old.

The engine was rebuilt prior to O'Quinn's acquisition in 2007.
RM said the car retains all of its original features, including the rare Kingston carburetor and the coil box stamped No. 30.

An RM vehicle description said Henry Ford and an associate originally placed part orders for the 1903 Model A, which included car bodies with C.R. Wilson Carriage Co. at a cost of $68 each; wheels from W.K. Pruden Wheel Co. at $26 per set; and tires from Hartford Rubber Co. at $40 per set.The Dodge Brothers supplied Ford's chassis and running gear at $250 each.

EarlyFordRegistry.com said 677 of the original closed-rear Model A cars were produced; an additional 1,131 updated open-rear Model A with a 10-horsepower engine and improved cooling were also produced.

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