1904 Ford Model B Touring Car

1904 Ford Model B Touring Car

Photo by Cliff West

Henry Ford built cars before the famous Model T. His first was called the Model A. It had an 8-horsepower engine under the seat, and was introduced in 1903. In 1904, Ford expanded the lineup with the upscale Model B. (Initially, the model letters made sense.)

The Ford Model B was Ford's first front-engine car, with a 24-horsepower 4-cylinder engine mounted behind a conventional radiator. It cost considerably more than the concurrent Model A ($2000 vs $750). Ford sold about 500 examples of the Model B and about 1,750 examples of the Model A. As a result, The Model B is very rare today. This example was at the Towe Ford Museum (now the California Automobile Museum) in Sacramento, California in March 1992.