SO maybe you were expecting the Chevy Vega? Had you put all your eggs on the Humber Super Snipe?
If anticipation of the selection of Car of the Century was keeping you up nights, you'll be relieved to know that the votes are in: Ford's Model T is the most significant car of the automotive age.
Whew!
Ford's tin lizzie might have seemed the logical choice -- it did, after all, find 15 million buyers; put the motorcar within reach of the common man; made America a mobile society; set the stage for modern assembly-line manufacturing; and cemented Detroit's place at the center of the auto universe. But it did not win by a landslide.
A jury of 126 auto experts from 32 countries, under the auspices of an entity called the Global Automotive Elections Foundation, gave 742 points to the Model T, compared with 617 for the runner-up, the Mini of Britain. The rest of the top five: the Citroen DS, 567 points; the Volkswagen Beetle, 521; and the Porsche 911, 303.
The general public was invited to vote on the Internet, and its choices were ''integrated'' -- the foundation didn't say how -- with those of the experts.
Organizers operated from the Netherlands and from Curacao, in the Netherlands Antilles, and the race had a global flavor. Finalists were culled from an initial list of 200 cars, including local favorites like the Austro-Daimler of Austria, the De Dion Bouton Quadricycle of France, the Pegaso Z-102 of Spain, the Rumpler Tropfenwagen of Germany and, yes, the Tatra of Czechoslovakia.
While the great-grandparents of the international jurors might have seen the Model T (built in 1908-27) as a shoo-in, the panel did not stop after picking the top car of all time. They voted Giorgetto Giugiaro the most important auto designer of the century, Ferdinand Porsche (whose credits include the Beetle) the most significant automotive engineer, Henry Ford the century's leading automotive entrepreneur and Ferdinand Piech -- who is currently chairman of the management board of Volkswagen A.G. -- car executive of the century. Sorry, Mr. De Lorean. JAMES G. COBB
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