Watch a 1915 Ford Model T Hit the Dyno

Cars have changed a whole lot since Henry Ford and crew first put the Model T on offer to the masses. Ford always officially claimed that the T was capable of producing a whopping 20 horsepower, but when was the last time you saw anyone actually check? The team from Merlins Old School Garage on YouTube just strapped their 1915 runabout to a dyno to find out just how much power customers were actually getting during the dawn of the automobile.

The Ford Model T was developed in secret on the third floor of Ford’s Piquette Avenue Plant, with the likes of Ed “Spider” Huff and a teenaged Edsel Ford working on the skunkworks project. The Model T made its public debut in the fall of 1908, ultimately going on to sell more than 15 million units globally by 1927. This particular example is from the 1915 model year, but it’s not entirely stock. That’s to be expected from a car that’s over a century old, with the first half of the video below detailing some needed repairs and restoration work. While it’s eye-opening to see the innards of these early machines, the real action starts around the 35-minute mark.