Quiz Archive

About Quiz # 192 1936 Ford V8 made in ..... (UPDATE: no production in Helsinki)

Meet Vlad Capotescu who is the proud owner of a 1936 Ford fordoor DeLuxe. The car is currently undergoing a full restoration. See also the dashboard and engine. Among all competitors only Don Risen, Ivan Mahy, Thomas Edfors, Don Bosco, Gary Kauffman, David Horsley were all correct in identifying the car's year and type. However... that was not enough to win. Coming up with the right location of the factory where this car was made, was essential to make the difference this time. As you can see from the photos, some work needs to be done, but keep in mind this is possibly one of only two (!) surviving cars from this specific plant that was opened in 1936... an important piece of Romanina car industry. Still we had four (!) competitors who were correct in pointing out the correct location of Bucharest in Romania! We name Warren Henderson (USA), Thomas Ventilo (Germany), Mike Turner (USA), Eisencah Eisenach (Germany) David Miller (USA). In the end we decided one man made the extra mile to win this time. See "Read More' for his analysis:... (special thanks to Vlad Capotescu for information and photos)
UPDATE by Timo Laitinen from Finland:"What happened in Helsinki in 1926 was establishing a Ford-owned importing company (Fords were earlier imported by private companies) - not a production unit although that was probably contemplated. 'Oy Ford Ab' had later some truck-assembly activities during the WW II and later in the 40´s but that is another story. The company building was called "the factory" which easily leads to incorrect conclusions." These models were built all over the world with Ford of England having responsibility for all Commonwealth markets (except Canada) and most of Europe before WWII.

Now the difficult bit - where was it manufactured: The plants in Spain, Serbia (Vojno Tehnicki Zavod), Hungary (MAVAG), and Nizhny Novgorod (GAZ) didn't build any V8 passenger cars to my knowledge. Vairogs in Riga started their V8 production later. France and Germany are out-of-scope as well; their 1936 V8 models looked slightly different. The hint you gave mentions a new two-story building with integrated showroom. To my knowledge this was not the case in the Ford plants located in Sweden, Copenhagen, Vienna, Helsinki (opened 1926), Budapest, Amsterdam (opened 1932) or Antwerp (new plant in 1931).

So I tend to say it was built in Bucharest/Romania, as that plant started production in 1936, which aligns with the "brand new plant". Romanian V8s were even successful in motor sport, just remember Petre Cristea winning the 1936 Rallye Monte Carlo!"
Many congratulations to Thomas Ventilo, Ford fan from Köln, Germany!

Friday, 01 December 2006