When Colin Tippett, of Moncton, New Brunswick, bought this 1931 Ford Model A Cabriolet 20 years ago he made a deal with his parents Pat and Joe Tippett.
They would maintain the 90-year-old car, but Colin would own it. Sounds like a typical parent / son car ownership scheme.
Joe and Pat Tippett and the 1931 Ford Model A Cabriolet
Ford Model As replaced the Model T that had been on the market for 18 years. The Model A went on sale December 2, 1927. A mere 14 months later, by February 4, 1929, Ford had sold a million Model As then reached two million sales by July!
Although the colour of Colin’s Model A has been changed from the original Washington Blue, the car is basically the same as it was when it was built at the Ford plant outside Windsor, Ontario in 1931.
Powered by a 40-horsepower, 201 CID four-cylinder engine with a compression ratio of just 4.22:1, the roadster has a top speed of about 115 km/h. The fuel is gravity-fed from the tank, located in the cowl between the dashboard and the firewall, to the carburetor. It has a positive-ground six-volt electrical system.
The cute cabriolet, complete with rumble seat (also called a mother-in-law seat!), was built with just two options – windshield wipers and a hood ornament. Big time stuff, almost 100 years ago.
But not as big time as the life this survivor has had under the watchful eye of the Tippett family, as they dust off the well-loved relic for family events and special occasions.
Who gets the rumble seat?
