Miguel Sánchez
It may be a somewhat risky writing exercise, but to tell the story of the Ford 999 we are going to go back to the beginnings of Montesa. Yes, the motorcycle brand created in 1944 by Xavier Bultó and Pere Permanyer. Two opposite but complementary characters. The first being focused on the world of competition while the second had a prudent commercial mentality. So things, until in 1958 Bultó formalized his departure to create Bultaco, Montesa lived halfway between large-series creations and short-run designs for the official team and its participation in the World Cup. In this way, the Catalan company progressed mechanically through a symbiosis in which circuits and dealers complemented each other perfectly.
That yes, everything changed from 1957. Year in which the SEAT 600 was presented with prices capable of bringing it closer to the new middle classes. Which were accessing consumption en masse two years before the approval of the Stabilization Plans. Economic turning point in the Franco regime. Making motorcycles stop being the preferred vehicle of the popular sectors to be replaced by the compact car. With all that, Permanyer thought that the most apt thing would be to put aside the races and its uncertain economy to focus on mass production of urban models. Just the opposite of what dominated Bultó's head. Tending to focus on sportsmanship as a promising market niche where they can dominate.
At this point, what do these two Catalan businessmen have to do with Henry Ford? Well, as you want to see the truth is that enough. Let's see. Usually, the well-known American has been assigned a memory that would rather be similar to that of Permanyer. That is to say, the one of an efficient businessman made by and the one for the management of a massive brand. At the end of the day, he is still the greatest ideologue of chain production. So much so that, what not a few historians call the Second Industrial Revolution, is also often called the Fordist system.
However, researching the business beginnings of Henry Ford calls attention to what happened in 1902. The year in which he was expelled from the Henry Ford Company by his partners. Tired of the enormous attention that our protagonist was giving to the Ford 999. A car designed to break speed records. Without any type of benefit logic beyond taking the loot from the prizes awarded in certain races. That is, against the historical image that has been built of Henry Ford, it turns out that in the end he was a Xavier Bultó at maximum power. However, both the Catalan and the North American knew perfectly well that to go to the races the accounts had to balance first in the offices.
HENRY FORD AND HIS ERRATIC BEGINNINGS
Let's not fool ourselves. As much as words like "passion" or "emotion” are associated with the world of circuits, racing must be a sustainable company. This was known from Enzo Ferrari to Marcel Renault even belonging to very different times. That's the way it is, Both focused on the production of serial cars to pay for what really interested them: competition. In fact, while Marcel came to die with his boots on running in the 1903 Paris-Madrid, Enzo never hid the scant interest that his series cars produced in him in the face of everything that happened at the Scuderia.
However, the curious thing is that a man like Henry Ford participated in that vision at least until the massive Model T was launched in 1908. With all this, analyzing the first years of our protagonist in the automobile industry is most instructive. For example. Entering a certain level of capital, his first major business venture is the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899. Backed by a dozen investors including the mayor of Detroit himself, Henry Ford sets out to build useful delivery trucks. Yes. But at the same time racing cars with which to gain prestige and boost sales.
Something that did not last long. Since in 1901 this company was dissolved dragging considerable losses. An unpleasant fact that prevented the Henry Ford Company from being formed at the end of that same year together with some new shareholders. Precisely those that we commented on a few paragraphs before. Those who forced the departure of Henry Ford within a few months of founding the company accusing him of focusing too much on racing and the Ford 999. Something that, inevitably, reminds us of the controversies between Permanyer and Bultó just before the latter ended up founding Bultaco in 1958.
In fact, Henry Ford left the company to which he gave his name, taking with him the plans of the Ford 999 as well as the commercial name itself. Thanks to this, in 1903 he founded - this time already - what would be his definitive and still existing company: Ford Motor Company. All this while his former partners renamed the facilities of the Henry Ford Company in Detroit to found Cadillac. Beginning its journey with a vehicle with identical mechanics to that of the Ford Model A of 1903. A turbulent financial era where a racing car stood out, of which only two units were made. The Ford 999.
FORD 999, TWO UNITS FOR THE SAME PURPOSE
To behold the Ford 999 is to come face to face with prime time motoring. A time of pioneers in which there were no concessions to anything that had to do not with security, but with the simple prudence necessary to arrive alive at the next hour. In this way, this car does not have any accessory components. In fact, because it doesn't have it, it doesn't have a body. And it is that in the Ford 999 everything is in sight. Leaving exposed its stringer chassis and engine, drawing attention to the absence of rear suspension and differential.
All this bringing to reality the plans on which Henry Ford began to work in 1901, collaborating with the pilots Tom Cooper and Barny Olfield to build the two units of the Ford 999. However, at this point we must make an important clarification. And it is that each unit was given a name despite being virtually identical.
What's more, between race and race pieces were intermingled, making it difficult to know where the specifications of one began and those of the other ended. In any case, the truth is that there was one called Arrow, in yellow, and another called 999, in red. Once the two units had been built, Henry Ford got rid of his participation in the Ford 999, reserving the right to advertise using his possible future achievements in competition. And that was when a few complicated months began in which, quite simply, neither of the two units started up.
CHAMPION ON ICE
This forced Cooper and Olfield to be acting as mechanics throughout the summer of 1902, until they managed to get them rolling for October. From then on, victories and speed records followed on tracks across the country. El Ford 999 It was not only a performance vehicle with its 18-liter four-cylinder engine (!) to yield from 70CV to 100CV. It also quickly became an icon of speed. With the usual advertising benefits that this gave to the series cars produced by the Ford Motor Company from 1903.
Of course, that had its dangers. Thus, shortly after unit 999 - named after a popular high-speed locomotive - retired, the Arrow suffered an accident in which pilot Frank Day died. After this, Henry Ford himself bought and repaired it, calling it Ford 999 although it should rather have been called “New 999”. And go, neither short nor lazy, without superstitions or fears for what had happened to Frank Day driving that same chassis, he himself set out to break the world speed record on ice on January 12, 1904.
For this, he had the collaboration of the mechanic Ed Huff. In charge of handling the accelerator while he governed not the steering wheel, but that kind of handlebar that the Ford 999 has. The result was reaching 147 kilometers per hour on the surface of the frozen lake in Saint Clair, Michigan. A brand that the Ford 999 only kept for a few months, although its fame would last until today as one of the first great racing cars in history.
Images: The Henry Ford / Free Library of Philadelphia
