The Model T Was a Flex Fuel Car

Henry Ford originally created his Model T cars to run on either alcohol or gasoline, or both. At the time, gas stations were relatively rare but farmers typically had stills they used to turn their crop waste into alcohol, which they used for stoves and lamps. If a driver was out in the countryside and ran out of fuel, he could always get some alcohol from a nearby farmer. So the Model T was made with two levers for adjusting the engine to burn alcohol or gasoline or any mix of the two.

In the following five and a half minute video, David Blume visits the Ford Motors World Headquarters and shows you how the Model T flex fuel levers worked and why they were necessary: