Hot-Rodders Give a Century-Old Ford Heart Forced Induction

The engine under discussion is pure Americana: a Ford Model T powerplant, one hundred years old, the kind of unit that put the country on wheels long before anyone thought to bolt a turbocharger to it. No factory ever built one this way — turbocharging simply wasn't part of the automaker's vocabulary in the Model T's day. That gap is exactly what a hot-rodder has now closed, fitting force induction to the vintage four-cylinder to see whether a design from the 1920s can handle 21st-century boost. It's a small, mechanical question with a satisfying answer waiting at the end of it: nothing in the engineering says it can't be done.

With reporting from The Drive.