Edsel Ford’s 1934 Model 40 Special Speedster

A determined, wealthy collector slugged it out with Ford family representatives, resulting in the $1.76 million price

by Ken Gross

As president of Ford Motor Company from 1925 until his untimely death in 1943, from cancer and undulant fever, Edsel Bryant Ford had a considerable influence on Ford styling, first with Lincoln, then with the 1928 Model A, the 1932 Ford, and models that followed. He oversaw the design of the first Mercury cars and initiated the Lincoln Continental. A true enthusiast, Edsel’s personal automobiles ranged from Model T speedsters to a Stutz, a Bugatti, and a Hispano-Suiza.

An accomplished artist who took art lessons all his life, Edsel Ford studied design and styling—issues that didn’t interest his Puritanical father. Henry Ford’s no-frills styling emanated from Ford’s ultra-conservative engineering department, but Edsel established Ford’s first design group and chose E.T. “Bob” Gregorie to run it. Gregorie, who’d worked briefly at Harley Earl’s General Motors Art and Colour studio, was an accomplished “sketch artist” and adept at translating his boss’s...