Written by By Erin Panich, CNN New York
By 1935, Ford Motor Company produced 500,000 of the Model A cars, which landed in U.S. showrooms as a staple of the postwar economy.
While still roughly double the size of a modern-day minivan, the not-your-grandfather’s humble sedan didn’t have a driver’s seat and required a long stick shift to put the wheels in motion.
Drawn by the fact that there was no onboard air conditioning, many owners also branched out from the original lower-temperature heater–in place for three years –and put in cast aluminum radiators, adding temperature to fit their climate comfort.
Being the Depression-era vision of the future, the Model A had a mind-boggling feature list that included such back-to-the-future must-haves as a new radio and a progressive anti-incursion mechanism to keep out invading aliens from outer space.
When the Model A was introduced, Ford charged $220 for the “entry-level” version, and everyone else paid $500 for the car’s automotive equivalent of the “entry-level” model of the intervening years: a 12-speed automatic transmission with a generator to start the engine.
Check out the video above to watch as car enthusiasts inspect — and spray — the latest 2018 Ford Shelby GT500 the same way they were able to admire the Model A at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in 1937.