How many are left?

Grape PI

Grape PI

Junior Member
Hi all

I am new to the Model A world, and am in love with this amazing car and it’s pivotol role in American history. In October of 2017, I bought my first model A with my 90 year old grandfather. We have talked about this for years and at 90, well, let’s face it, he is not a model A and will not be with us forever.

I found “Cupcake” a 3 hour drive from home and it arrived on a trailer a few day later.

We now have a 1929 Fordor that was restored in 1980 and has obviously sat a lot since. The paint is old and has a few chips here in there. A classic 20 footer.

My question is two fold.

1) it is a Briggs 60C. I cannot find any production numbers for just the c. All numbers include A, B and C. Anybody have more info there. It appears that they made a bit over 300,000 60’s however they only made the C for less then 3 months.

2). Is there any estimates of how many of these are still on the road.
 
I can’t answer your questions but I can welcome you to the greatest fun car ever made.

I am happy for you and your Grandfather. Enjoy.
 
Welcome to the Barn. If Grandpa has any 'A' stories, please pass them along. I bet his dad owned one at some time.....
 
Chuck

The first car that my grandfather remembers his father having was a 1929 Model A. It however was a Tudor. This was here in Western NY along the shores of Lake Erie.

My grandfather was born in September of 1927. That winter, there was very little work in the area, so he loaded his young family into his Model T and drove to Florida to find work. He upgraded to a Model A in 1929 and again drove to FL in the winter to find work. Can you imagine?

I am the 7th generation here to own and oporate a grape farm that dates back to the time that this area was settled. Deep roots here, pun intended.

During The Great Depression, my great grandfather opened the local diner in town. It is still in operation but not by our family. My grandfather made the two mile trip from home to the diner in a 1929 Model A many times as a young boy. As soon as I got “Cupcake” on the road in October, I made that trip with him in our “new” car.

He is a great man and I am blesssed to have him. He still works hard and even hauled most of our 1,000 ton plus of grapes to the plant this year at age 90! There was a time when he hauled them on a Model A truck! Far fewer tons, but wow the work!
 
jm29henry said:
I believe that the 1929 Briggs 4 door 60 a,b c ,were lumped in to one total.Ilove my60 b
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Yes for some reason they lump them all together in one total.

A while back I was trying to find out how many '30 Briggs Town Sedans (155D) were built. What I found was not only were the '30 and '31 lumped together but so were the Briggs and Murray bodies.

I did finally find this list on the MAFCA website http://www.mafca.com/downloads/Technical/Body_Numbers.pdf. B

Hope it helps but it still doesn't break it down.
Of course that won't answer your question, "How many are left?" :p:p

 
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I have heard that there are about 250,000 A's still around. Anyone have a better number. That is a huge percentage of what they built.
 
No I don't have a better number, but there are many whose owners don't belong to car
clubs or get involved with polls. Off the top I can say about 20 in this town in which we
have five and one model T none restored but all drivers...oh and one A with 1935 V8.
 
Collector cars go through a 'holocaust' period,a decade or two where they were scrapped before they became collected..the 40's and 50's for the model a,If a car survived those days odds are its still around.The percentage of those on the road vs. unfinished projects and barn finds is debatable,might be as high as 1 to 1,seems every town in America has a few still lurking in the weeds
 
Jacksonlll said:
Didn't someone say, "No matter where you are, you are within a mile of a Model A."
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That could be close. The USA is about 3.5 million square miles but most are not occupied. 250,000 cars would mean less than 250,000 square mile occupied (lots of places where more than one car resides), so say, 150,000 - 175,000 square miles occupied with a relatively even dispersion of cars, if this counts derelict cars in the bush or back 40 , I could see it.
 
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