Ed Archer, a well-known character/driver in vintage racing circles, with his #4 1915 Model T Speedster race car visiting at the museum.

Background information:
Model T automobiles were the favorite cars to hop up for performance or to take racing for many years. The following are some important reasons.

1. Cost: Unlike today's cars, the Model T actually went down in price over time, from $800 in 1909 to $260 in 1924. Used cars could be picked up even cheaper.

2. Simplicity and dependability of design: The design of the Model T did not change over that period of time. This meant that the bugs were worked out, parts were available (including after-market performance parts). Model Ts were easy to customize. For racing, the body parts were removed. Some were rebodied, like Ed's car, but in a lot of cases, the owners just took off the bodies and drove their hot rods that way.

3. Use of Vanadium Steel: Henry Ford found out on a visit to France that French Autos, using Vanadium Steel, which would bend, fared better in accidents than did American autos using plain steel, which would break. Vanadium Steel had 3X the tensile strength of ordinary steel of the day. The problem was that it was an expensive process, and one with which American steelmakers were unfamiliar and not equipped for. In typical Ford fashion, he bought land in South America which contained the ore and guaranteed the costs of an American steelmaker if they would modify their equipment to turn out the desired product. That lowered his costs and put him ahead of his competitors in both safety and quality. Eventually, Ford owned mines, ships and steel mills for producing Fords in the least amount of time. If a ship containing ore from a Ford mine would dock at the Ford plant on Sunday, the ore-would be off-loaded to the on-site steel mill and the finished steel would roll off the assembly-line in the form of a Model T on Wednesday.

4. Power-to-weight ratio: The Model T was a lightweight vehicle. Other cars were far fancier, more comfortable and even more reliable. They were also more expensive. Of the lightweight vehicles available, The Ford was the easiest to modify. For one thing, unlike many vehicles of the day, the Model T had a removable engine head. Racers could remove the stock head and replace it with one of several after-market designs. Ed's #4 racer has a Rajo head. The Chevrolet Brothers made an overhead valve head for the Model T after they had a falling out with General Motors and no longer had anything to do with the Chevrolet autos after 1913 (Louis Chevrolet was a race car driver).

The Ford Model T is the most raced automobile in racing history, with 30+ years of racing after the beginning of production. As all of the true race cars, Ed's has had the body removed and replaced with smoother lines and a cowl for airflow, the frame lowered and stiffened and many other modifications to improve handling.