Seems strange to see a dual cowl Model A, but Edsel felt he needed it.
Brewster and Co. was one of America's earliest carriage builders. Established by James Brewster at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1810, the firm won international acclaim at the Paris Carriage Exhibition in 1878. In 1905, Brewster built its first body for the burgeoning automobile industry; by 1911 it had abandoned carriages entirely and moved the workshops to Long Island City, New York.
In 1914, in what would become a long association, Brewster took a Rolls-Royce franchise.
Not surprisingly, many imported Rolls-Royce cars bore Brewster coachwork. When Rolls-Royce of America was established at Springfield, Massachusetts in 1919, Brewster became one of the companies supplying "Rolls-Royce Custom Coachwork," bodies built in small series and listed in the catalogs. The Brewster relationship was sufficiently close that Rolls bought Brewster in October 1925.
By the early thirties, however, all luxury automakers were reeling, Rolls-Royce among them. Chassis assembly at Springfield ceased, leaving only a few imported Phantom II chassis for Brewster to clothe.
Rolls-Royce of America was shut down in 1934; by then its president, John S. Inskip, was running Brewster and steered the coachbuilding company back to auto manufacture. With the deepening depression, Inskip reasoned that America's wealthy, faced with belt-tightening, might be interested in a coachbuilt car on an economy chassis. This led to the Brewster Ford.
For his own car, however, Edsel specified a standard Model 40 grille and a hood without louvers. Bearing Brewster number 9002, it was reportedly the third built, and was still being finished while in transit to Michigan in a railcar. Delivery took place on June 1, 1934, the first Brewster Ford to reach the public. It has headlights of the 1936 Ford style, 16-inch wheels and a 1938-type banjo steering wheel.
Brewster Ford No. 9002 was sold through the New York Ford agency in 1941, at Edsel's request. The new owner, reportedly a New Jersey resident, kept it until his death. After his passing, it was left to his only daughter and transported to her home in California. It then remained in storage until 2005, when the current owner was able to buy it. The car was transported directly to the Meadow Book Concours d'Elegance, where it was welcomed back to Michigan for the first time in 55 years and displayed as a special, non-judged exhibit. It appeared in March 2006 at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, receiving the Amelia Award as runner-up in a class for custom-bodied Fords, in competition with seven other cars with high-quality restorations.
The heart-front Brewster Fords are the only Ford V8-based cars recognized as Full Classics by the Classic Car Club of America.
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/4961005_253-1934-brewster-ford-town-car
http://carzhunt.blogspot.com/2018/07/hiding-in-plain-site-gullwing-motors.html
If not for Edsel the Ford Motor Company would have been gone by 1935 since his father henry thought the T was perfect as it was and did not want to modernize.
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