At one point Henry Ford planned to produce the 1933/34 Ford in two sizes, standard and petite. This is the story of the baby Ford that almost but never happened.

If not for the intrepid Ford historians Edward P. Francis and George DeAngelis, we might never have learned of this story. Toiling deep within the Ford Archives years ago, they discovered that Henry Ford planned to produce the 1933/34 Ford in two sizes, the standard Model 40 everyone knows, and in a considerably smaller Model 44  (above). They included the story in their exhaustively detailed 1982 book, The Early Ford V8 as Henry Built It (highly recommended), while DeAngelis also presented it in Antique Automobile magazine in July-August 1983. The Model 44 is really their story. We’re simply sharing it, while adding some background.

The redesigned 1933 Ford V8 was actually Edsel Ford’s idea, as the senior Ford had planned to keep producing the 1932 Model B/18 for some years, just as he had with the 1928-31 Model A. Edsel convinced his father that a new car was necessary, but Henry decided that due to the miserable state of the U.S. economy, it might be wisest to offer the new model in both a standard and a smaller economy version, using the same drivetrain. The full-sized Model 40 would have the longer 112-in wheelbase Edsel desired, while the Model 44 would be built on a 105-in wheelbase, similar to the Model B/18, with the body and chassis scaled down to match.

1932 Ford Model Y prototype

There’s some irony in the junior Model 44 proposal, as the exterior design of the 1933 Model 40 was itself based on a much smaller Ford. The Model Y for England (above) was styled in Dearborn by E.T. “Bob” Gregorie in late 1931—his first complete Ford car design. (Built on a 90-in wheelbase, it was powered by a 933 cc side-valve four rated at 8 taxable hp.) Ford’s hardboiled engineering staff was so impressed with his work that Gregorie was accepted into the fold. Edsel then had a Ford draftsman scale up the Model Y drawings to his 112-in wheelbase and adjust the lines, and that became the production 1933 Ford Model 40. The Model 44, in turn, was a scaled-down version of the Model 40.

By November of 1932 the engineering and tooling drawings for the Model 44 were complete and bids were received from Murray and Briggs, Ford’s chief body suppliers, for two body styles, a Tudor and Fordor Sedan. A small number of pilot cars were built using the production tooling and an initial run of 60,000 Model 44s was anticipated. But then a labor strike at the Briggs plant in Highland Park (the former Ford Model T factory) and the national bank holiday in March of 1933, along with the general uncertainty in the economy, led to a series of postponements that stretched out over a year. Finally, on June 28, 1934, Henry Ford gave the order to abandon the Model 44. Edsel was left with the task of shutting down the project and quietly phasing out the vendor orders to avoid adverse publicity.

Photos of the production Model 40 (above) and a Model 44 prototype (below) allow us to compare the differences. With its seven-inch shorter wheelbase, the Model 44 has considerably shorter doors, especially the rears. The fender, bumper, hood, and grille shell stampings are simplified, the wheels and tires are smaller, and there isn’t a trace of bright metal anywhere on the Model 44, not even the hubcaps. Naturally, all these cost reductions suggest the tiniest of profit margins. With the full benefit of hindsight, we can see that the business case for the Model 44 was never that strong. As it was, the standard, full-sized Model 40 Tudor sold for just $500.