Ford and Friends Celebrate Model T Centennial in Indiana: Part 5

Continued from yesterday… Another fast Model T was Pete Beckloff’s blinding yellow 1915 speedster. From Hyannis on Cape Code, Massachusetts, his dream was to buy an old Stutz Bearcat (a premium American car brand that lasted from 1914 until 1934); however, he didn’t have the money to purchase one.

Instead, three years ago, Beckloff began with “a bunch of junk” and constructed a Model T version of his desired automobile, complete with brass trim and a monocle-style windshield for the driver. “The passenger gets to eat bugs,” he said mirthfully.

The owner of a robotics machinery company that supplies Titleist, the golfing accessories company, Beckloff said that he also has built other cars, airplanes and boats in his spare time.

“The hardest part on this car was figuring out the right proportions, then painting, and bending the brass work into the right shapes,” he added.

Before cars were decked out in chrome bumpers and other exterior trim (a style that went out of favor by the 1990s for most cars, but still favored on pickup trucks and SUVs), there was the “brass era.” From the 1890s up through the beginning of World War I, cars were trimmed with brass fittings for their headlamps and other accessories.

Jerome Casper’s 1911 Model T, with its torpedo body style, was decked out with brass kerosene side lamps, plus its acetylene gas headlamps were fed from an all-brass fuel tank mounted on the driver’s-side running board.

“I’ve had this one for 2 ½ years,” noted Casper, a resident of Springfield, Illinois. “The ‘fella’ I bought it off of had it since the 1980s. I brought it up to a more period-correct look.”

As one of Ford’s sportier models, the torpedo style is the only 1911 Ford that had doors while the seat sits back further and the steering column is longer than the standard runabouts of the time, Casper added.

Note: Come back tomorrow for part six: A Perch for the Pooch