Bronze god is hitting the road
Ford Model T is cast in heavy metal
As a schoolboy, Mark Stoddart was told he was thick and was once forced to stand in front of the class for 45 minutes trying to read out one word.
That it was a private fee- paying school - Drumley House in Mossblown - made an unthinkable situation today even worse.
Dyslexia awareness was not a thing when Mark, now 57, was growing up in the 70s in Barassie.
But this week Mark, an internationally renowned sculptor, said: “I am happy to have made something of my life and to be able to give something back.”
He has used his connections made via dyslexia - Sir Jackie Stewart no less - to pull- off an incredible project to cast a Ford Model T in bronze.
A car belonging to one of Mark’s clients Neil Tuckett, a farmer and Model T specialist in Buckingham, was stripped down and used as a template for the foundry to make an exact copy.
It extends to creases and worn bits in the old seat, to individual nuts and bolts and was driven/ carried up Ben Nevis by Neil in 2011 to mark an earlier ascent.
Mark said: “Without Sir Jackie I think this would have been impossible and I now possess the legal certification allowing as the reproduce the car and the iconic logo.
“Sir Jackie had a 40 partnership with Ford, including his three Formula One wins, and was able to talk to the right people in Ford USA.
“He is dyslexic and chairman of Dyslexia Scotland, of which I am an ambassador.
“At school I was told I was thick and stupid and would make nothing of my life. I got let down badly by the headmaster, the teachers and the kids.
“It got to the stage I didn’t go for two years. I wouldn’t go out or on a bus or train because I thought someone would call me stupid and I would take panic attacks.”
Next month the bronze Ford will be installed in Fort William as a tourist attraction, marking the May 1911 journey of a Model T being driven up Ben Nevis by Scots Ford dealer Henry Alexander.
The Ford Model T will sit on 100 feet of cast bronze tyre tracks which are engraved with the 45 names of the people who donated more than £ 1000 towards the project.
Mark now holds the reproduction permission and a personal letter from William Clay Ford Jnr at his home in Turnberry and has spent the past eight months being involved at the foundry.
He said: “William really is Mr Ford in America, his great grandfather founded the company. He is following the project and wished it well.
“The idea is people will be able to go to Fort William and sit in the car for photographs.
“The details being cast in is mindblowing. I was keen to help and won’t make a penny out of it. Though my name will be inscribed on the car.”
Mark is most famous for his bronze hippo tables.
He remains flat out from commissions from around the world - including an African mansion which overlooks the Zambesi - despite reducing his number of shows.
Mark said: “I am still going at one hundred miles an hour - though I’m trying to scale back a bit.
His work includes both one- off bespoke pieces or as part of an edition.
And he remains enthused his pieces are now coming to auction houses Bonhams, Christies and Sothebys at £ 15,000, seven times their sales receipt.
He revealed Rolls Royce, Lamborghini and Bugatti are all following the Model T story - so possibly expect some new fourwheeled commissions soon.
Not bad for a “stupid” dyslexic.
The bronze Ford Model T, cast by Powderhall Bronze in Edinburgh, will be unveiled at its permanent home in Cameron Square, Fort William, on Saturday May 19.