My great Uncle Harry (George Harry Smoak) drove
a 1926 Model T Ford touring car through at least, I think, 
1952.  A Model T touring car was a "four door convertible". 
Yeppers, it had four doors and, yeppers, the top could be 
folded down. The ID number indicates it to have been built
in October 1925 using an engine from Ford's River Rouge
plant.

From a technical standpoint, I see the Model T's transmission 
as very similar to early automatic transmissions. The main 
difference is the Model T driver manually controlled the shift 
with foot pedals whereas the evolving automatic transmissions 
used hydraulics, governors and vacuum sensors to shift 
automatically.

The Model T had three foot pedals associated with the 
transmission. (Nope, no acclerator...that was a lever on the 
steering column.)  The right pedal was the brake...yep, the 
brake band was in the transmission. The left pedal
was low/neutral/high. All the way down was low gear, all 
the way out was high gear and halfway was neutral. The center 
pedal was reverse. If one held the left pedal mid-range 
(neutral) and pressed the center pedal, reverse
was engaged. IMO, rather ingenious for its time.
The mechanical action when a pedal was depressed was to 
compress a fabric lined band in the transmission around a 
drum associated with a planatary gear set.  (Same as today, 
BTW.)

Well, one of the issues with this transmission was the band 
associated with the low gear wore out frequently. The result 
being it would slip and the car wouldn't move or would barely 
creep with little power.
Uncle Harry used to vist us, driving his Model T. Well, coming 
from the south (where he lived) one had to drive up a somewhat 
steep hill. Many times Uncle Harry's Model T wouldn't make it 
as the (worn) low gear band slipped and there was no power to 
climb the hill. The solution was quite simple. Merely turn the car 
around and back up the hill as the reverse band received little 
wear and provided the gear reduction necessary to climb the hill.

Another Model T story: The starter switch (yep, it had an 
electric starter as well as the front crank) was actuated by a large 
button that protruded vertically through the wooden floor board. 
When we visited Uncle Harry and Aunt Annie at their old Flemington 
place (not the old Furman Smoak house...the other one about a 
quarter mile to the west) we kids would like to play
in the Model T. Remember, now, if one wasn't depressing the left 
most floor pedal, the car was in high gear (unless a left most 
lever was pulled back disabling the transmission and applying the 
"parking" brake). Anyhow, Uncle Harry saw no need to pull said lever 
back when in his back yard.
But, then, when we kids were playing in the car, we'd often sit on the
floor (yeppers) on the starter switch button. The result, the 
starter would engage and the car would start moving forward! 
Whoa, Nelly!!!!!

I'm gonna restore that old Model T one of these days.
And, it'll be any color as long as it's black.