MTFCA Forum

Have been to the 'Pantheon' in Basel / Switzerland yesterday.
In a special exhibition between others there were a 1904 De Dion Bouton and a 1906 Ford Model N standing side by side.
Interesting to me to recognize the differences between old and new world cars in that case.
De Dion: 700 ccm engine with 6 HP, vehicle weight 560 kgs
Ford: 2419 ccm engine with 18 HP, vehicle weight 495 kgs
Guess the Ford should have had no problems to win the quarter mile drag race ...

I would give a certain part of my anatomy for that 1906 N!!

Me too! Beautiful cars. Thank you for the great pictures Joerg!

I recall that years ago I had a conversation with the late Bernie Van Aalst (not sure if I got the spelling correct on the last name), a long time member of the Long Beach Model T Club.
Bernie had several very early Ts, and some pre-Ts. He told me that he had sold, several years prior, a Model N that he had restored and subsequently sold to a person in, from what I can recall, was Switzerland.
I'm wondering if this just might be that car.

Thanks for sharing those great pictures. they are wonderful to see.
Rich

It would be interesting to know the engine number of this N, as well as history if known. Thank you for posting.

Not 1906, but a Model N made U.S. newspapers in 1908 for a Swiss hill climb victory over several European competitors:

No wonder I drool about the N.

@ modeltspaz:
I bought a booklet in the museum about an exhibithion there in 2012 about the beginnings of automotive transport and came to read it yesterday.
They had another Model N there and state that this one (see picture below) has frame no. BIC22 and is one of the first 25 Model N's built in Canada.
Found 1958 on a farm in Ottawa it came to Switzerland in the 1980s and was restored there.

Credits to Pantheon, Basel

Cars have from the early days been a taxation object in Europe. The taxation is based on the engine size somehow and a formula then calculated "taxation horse power" which is not the same as "brake horse power". It MAY have been close to each other in the early years, but later far from. For example the first european Ford cars was designated 8 HP but that was tax-hP. The Model Y had 21 BHP. The taxation was particular hard in France and Great Britain so the french and british car manufactures aimed for small engines but over time quite efficient. the model T is a 2900 ccm engine delivering 20 BHP. the above 21 BHP Model Y had a 933 ccm engine.
So taxation is most likely why the De Dion Bouton has that smaller engine than the Ford.
Over the years this became a greater problem for Ford (and probably other US manufacturers), and that was why Ford decided in september 1931 to produce the Model Y which was presented february 1932 after just 5 months development. It's a very interesting story actually, but now quite of topic.

I have posted a link to this discussion on the Early Ford Registry forum. I'm sure the OP would have posted it there if he/she knew such a forum existed.

https://earlyfordregistry.com/phpBB3/

Mark, thanks for the promo for the early ford site. These pre T cars are a bit of a challenge, I have been working on my 08 SR for a few years now and it was a pretty complete car, it is just the little stuff that takes lots of time to track down. Amazing how many of these still survive hoping to fire mine up this summer, now that I have the oiler working and the water pump rebuilt.

Van

Mike, I sold all Bernie’s cars for his wife shortly after his passing. I’m pretty sure the model N got sold locally, Bernie very seldom sold cars and I don’t remember him saying anything about selling a car overseas. I surly could be wrong, memory is not what it once was!

Kim,
The conversation I'm referring to occurred quite awhile before Bernie's passing. Unfortunately, I don't recall if the conversation occurred at one of the Long Beach swaps or at a regular monthly meeting when they met at the bank in Rossmoor.
I'm pretty confident that Bernie handled the sale himself.

Sorry, being a Model T owner and MTFCA member this is the only forum I am active in.
Just posted the 'museum find' here as I did see some Model N's mentioned in the past.
Never came to to know the 'earlyfordregistry' until now.

Joerg W, No worries! Don't give it a second thought. We are always pleased to hear from you about model T things happening in your part of the world. Several of our American regular posters often post pre-model T information here. I love the EFR site myself. Usually check it at least once a month. However, the traffic there is very light compared to here, so some things get posted here for better exposure.
Mark "CudaMan" S often posts links between the two sites (for which I wish to THANK him again!), as he is more active there than am I. Herb I also often posts links between the two sites as well as posting a lot of helpful information and photos on both sites.

You may want to be careful however. Those earlier Fords are every bit as addictive as model Ts!

Rob also posts here about the early Fords. I think anything from 1903-1927 is fine to post here.