In its time, the Ford Model Y was one of the most popular cars in Great Britain, yet most Americans have never seen one. It’s a neat car with a great story, so let’s have a look.
The Ford Model T is famous today as the car that put America on wheels but in fact, it did the same for a good part of the world. The Model T was the best-selling car in Great Britain from 1913 through 1923, cars flowing from an assembly plant at Trafford Park in Manchester. However, the Model T’s successor, the 1938-31 Model A, did not sell nearly as well.
One obstacle was the British road tax, which was then calculated using the Royal Automobile Club’s horsepower formula (D2 x n)/2.5, where D is the engine’s cylinder bore diameter and n is the number of cylinders, while stroke is not a factor. Among other things, this taxable horsepower system inspired the British auto industry’s affection for small-bore, long-stroke engines. With its Yankee-sized 3.875-in cylinder bores, the U.S.-spec Model A was at a special disadvantage in the marketplace.
At the urging of Sir Percival Perry (later Lord Perry), managing director of Ford of Britain, Edsel Ford was persuaded in the summer of 1931 to develop an entirely new product for Great Britain, one smaller, lighter, and more suited to European conditions. With input from two of Perry’s engineers, this new car was designed and engineered entirely in Dearborn. The chassis and engine were directed by Larry Sheldrick, while the exterior styling was the work of 28 year-old E.T. “Bob” Gregorie—his first complete car design for the Ford Motor Company.
When Americans view the Model Y, as the new Ford for Britain was called, they are most likely to assume that here is a scaled-down 1933-34 Ford Model 40. It sure looks like one, but the truth is actually the other way around. Gregorie designed the Model Y first, and Edsel Ford liked it so much he had a Ford engineering draftsman scale up the drawings, and that became the 1933 Ford for the USA. There was also a Model 44, larger than the Model Y but smaller than the Model 40, intended for the U.S. but it was canceled before production. (We recently featured the Model 44 here.)
Dwarfed by its own engine compartment, the Model Y’s tiny inline four displaced 933 cc, or 56.9 cubic inches, with a 56.6 mm x 92.5 mm bore and stroke (2.23-in x 3.64-in). Reportedly, Sheldrick started by shrinking all the U.S. Ford dimensions by 50 percent and working from there, so the result was essentially a miniature and simplified version of the Model A/B four. One key difference: the valvetrain, intake, and exhaust were swapped from the right to the left side of the block to accommodate right-hand drive. There was no air filter, only a cap over the air intake to block large objects from falling in. While the engine actually produced 22 hp, the dinky bore gave it a favorable RAC taxable rating of 8 hp, so the Model Y was equally well known in Britain as the Ford 8 hp or the Ford Eight.
The chassis was standard Ford U.S. practice with transverse leaf springs front and rear, merely scaled down: 90-in wheelbase, 45-in track width, 1,540 lbs at the curb, err, kerb. Two body styles were offered initially, a two-door and four-door (“Dual Entrance”) sedan, while a panel delivery was soon offered, and there were several coach body suppliers as well. For the August 1932 introduction, the list price was £120—roughly equivalent to $14,500 in U.S. dollars today. The road tax was just £6, less than half that for a Ford V8.
The Model Y soon captured more than 50 percent of the 8 hp market, as it was known, competing against the Austin 7 and Morris Eight and becoming one of Britain’s most popular cars. More than 150,000 were produced at the Ford Dagenham plant near London, while another 25,000 were manufactured or assembled in France, Germany, Australia, and elsewhere. In 1935 Ford of Britain introduced an improved car, the 10 hp Model C, but Perry convinced Ford to continue the Model Y with the price reduced to just £100, and it remained on the market through 1937.
