Another fun fact. The Model T was designed to run on Ethanol. And now, 100 years later, it's NEW technology? Sheesh...

T hot rods weigh in at around 12-1500lbs, so full-dress maybe 1700lbs? They ran with a little 20hp flathead four, mileage was probably around 25ish. The compression, as mentioned, was exceptionally low which allowed it to run on just about anything that was flammable and have that super low idle speed. Incidentally, they were our first SUV's - paved roads virtually didn't exist in the T's first days, so it had to be able to traverse dirt roads, berms, mud, and anything else that was out there.

Incidentally I saw a T hot rod today - running a Lincoln OHV V8, presumably the 317.

Had a good friend in high school back in the early '70s who used to like to take his VW down dirt roads that his other friends couldn't (or were afraid to) travel. The only other person in that group who could keep up with him was a kid who had a '27 Model T.

Regarding weight of these cars...

Don't know what the regulation is now, but "back in the day" if a car weighed over 1500 lbs it required fenders. Most Model T (and model A, for that matter) hot rods came in under this even with V8s, etc. That is why they were able to run w/o fenders. This would indicate that these were pretty light-weight cars.

model T's and A's left the factory with fenders.

i do know my AA truck weighs pretty close to 2 tons... but its got a huge steel bed on it, bigger frame , bigger solid metal wheels, bigger axels, etc.

Well if you consider the "roads" the Model T had to travel, that is no suprise. Volkswagons were designed to be able to navigate the heavy snows of Germany with ease, and the Model T had to negotiate roads that horse had o travel. Some of the best off road vehicles made, in my humble opinion...

Want my advice? I don't know what kind of budget you have, but I would personally try to build an aluminum frame and outfit it with as many fiber glass body panels as I could. Of course, I have a lot of aluminum fabriction ecperience, and my dad was an aiplane mechanic, so he could make almost anything out of fiber glass. Materials are less expensive than labor. Just a suggestion. Considering the eficiency of early motors (SUPRISE!!!), a 1-2K lb weight savings couls be the ticket...

:D That reminds me of off-roading in my '87 Cadillac. For a large low-slung FWD sedan, I sure got it to do some rough off-roading...

I can buy fiberglass fenders and such but in the big scheme of things theres really no point. Sure it will be light but the current gear/tranny setup i will have a cruising speed of 35-40mph. BUT have the ability to go up a tree if i wanted to:p also have the 1 1/2 ton load capacity:D

aluminum is expensive as hell and would deffinetly not be worth the trouble since theres crucial parts integrated into the frame...

im planning to keep it as stock looking as possible. By that i mean original looking body pannels, engine/tranny, and the look of it, but im going to add safety features like seatbelts, safety glass (windows are plate glass :eek: ) adding a right side taillight and making an amber LED board to attach to the back (prolly by C-clamps) so when im driving on the highway putting along at 35-40mph i wont get rear ended...

Sounds like a night back when I was much younger...after WAAAAAY too many beers...piling a bunch of us into first, a Mazda RX-2 then later into a 1959 Dodge and going dirt-roading around Twentynine Palms...amazing either car (or us) survived! Although the Mazda's clutch did slip a lot afterwards...

The next day, I pulled up to a friend's place to drop off another friend...says he: "Your car smells like a big beer!"