16 replies to this topic

[Cheater]

Got back late last Tuesday night from a pretty long road trip, most of which was spent attending the 32nd annual New London to New Brighton Antique Car Run in Minnesota.
 
Thought I would post a few pics of the various cars I was able to ride in on the four-day tour. On Wednesday through Friday, the rules regarding the cars allowed on these 'pre-tours' are more relaxed than on the 'official' run on Saturday (on Saturday cars from 1908 to 1915 had to be one or two-cylinders only, whereas all '08-15 cars can run on the pre-tours), and the distances are much shorter (50-75 miles). On Saturday, the tour is slightly more than 120 miles, with many of the eligible cars having cruising speeds of as little as 25 MPH.
 
The first day I rode in two early Ford Model Ts, a 1915 and a 1909.
 

 
This was the first car I rode in, a 1915 Model T owned by Victor Van Arsdel of Bennington, NE. It ran as well as any Model T I've ever been in until about two-thirds through the first leg of the day's run, when it began running on three cylinders. Victor's just starting to diagnose the problem in the pic above, which turned out to be a bad spark plug. Another tour participant had a used plug in his car's toolbox and that allowed Vic to get back to the hotel to install a new plug from his spares located there.
 

 
This 1909 Model T is one of the earliest Ts built, number 3024 of 15,007,033 made before production ended in 1927. The owner is the very well-known Carlton Pate of Rocky Hill, NJ, who as well as being a former Horseless Carriage Club of America president is the author of the 'bible' on the pre-T Fords, "Pate's Early Ford Encyclopedia: The Ford Cars 1903-1909,' a copy of which is in my library. It was great to finally meet Carl and his lovely wife Anne.
 
You'll note that the car doesn't have a windshield, which is not all that uncommon on cars this early, as in many cases tops, windshields, and sometimes even headlamps were optional at extra cost and some buyers didn't pony up for them.

Carl's Model T does not qualify for the Saturday tour, so he brought another Ford, a 1903 Model A, the first year of production, to drive on that day.
 
Thursday morning I lent my street car to my best man Donald R. Peterson, who is from this part of Minnesota, so he could attend his 72nd high school reunion (!) which conveniently was being held in a restaurant just two blocks from where the tour stopped midday at a really great old car and tractor museum. (There were 20 students in his graduating class, eight of whom are still living. Six were in attendance at the reunion lunch.) After we met up at the museum, I dropped him at the restaurant and drove around town until his reunion ended mid-afternoon. We then visited some of his old stomping grounds, the two farms he owns in the area, and the little town of Murdock, MN, where he was the mayor for a couple of terms in the late '60s and the owner of the only bank in town. I guess it qualifies as a town, although when Don was mayor 358 people lived there; today only 278 people call Murdock home.

Friday was a red letter day for me, as in 52 years in the old car hobby, I had never ridden in a steam car and on that day I rode in two of them!
 
The first was a 1908 White owned by Bob Lederer of Elk Grove Village, IL. The car is largely unrestored, although in very decent shape. However a small copper lube feed line broke and sidelined the car about an hour or so into the first leg on Friday. This was repairable but not on the side of the road, so it was flat-bedded back to New London, where Bob enlisted the aid of the local goldsmith to solder new copper tubing into a fitting. The White is the car in the background of the picture below.

Almost naturally, the only other steam car on the tour quickly pulled over to offer any assistance. This was a 1914 Stanley 10-HP (IIRC) owned by Mike and Nancy Roach of Grayslake, IL. They took pity on me and allowed me to ride with them to the next stop. I felt a little bad about abandoning Bob, but he insisted I go on as there wasn't anything we could do on the side of the road.
 


The rest of Friday and on Saturday, I rode in two stunning cars, a 1908 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (the ninth oldest Silver Ghost in existence) and a super-rare 1907 Darracq, a French make almost completely unknown in the US today.

The Rolls was easily the most impressive and valuable car on the tour (it sold at auction in 2017 for $990,000 plus a 2.5% buyers premium) and was almost certainly the most powerful, having a large six-cylinder engine. Owner John Dolan of Huntington, NY, graciously allowed me to ride with him several times, in both the front seat and the back. It was a lot of fun having him pass just about every other car on the tour after starting last or nearly so.
 

 

 

 
In the pic immediately above, John is pumping up the fuel pressure prior to starting; once the car is running an onboard piston pump takes over that task.
 
The second most impressive and powerful car was the 1907 Darracq owned by Michael Hoegl of Nobel, Ontario. Darracqs won the widely-publicized Vanderbilt Cup races back-to-back in 1905 and 1906, most likely using stripped-down cars very similar to this one. This is another car that passed lots of cars on the tour. Michael indicates he's had it up to 60 MPH and that it would go faster if he had the nerve. The engine is a rather large and torquey 457 CID four-cylinder coupled to a four-speed trans, a rarity in those days. I rode with Michael three or four times over the course of two days and actually finished the tour with him in the Darracq.
 

 

 
On Thursday, I did the morning leg in Don's 1911 Maxwell two-cylinder roadster (with his son Webster driving), shown below parked on the street in front of our lunch stop. Nowadays, when you mention Maxwell to the average person, the first thing they think of (if they think of anything) is Jack Benny's famous '20s example. Maxwells were very popular and durable cars during the 1906 to 1919 timeframe, always in the top ten in sales, but usually fourth or fifth. In 1909, Maxwell was actually third in sales, behind Ford and Buick. They are very popular with the early car touring crowd. There were fourteen Maxwells entered in this tour, although a couple of entrants were not able to come.


 
Of the 70 or so cars, I think that's all the cars I was able to ride in. All the owners were most welcoming, and with only one exception, I was never turned down for a ride if a seat was available.
 
The one exception was Wade Smith of San Antonio, TX, who denied my request to tour in his 1905 Columbia for a very good reason. "I don't let folks ride with us because this car has very poor brakes and having someone in the back makes them noticeably worse." It was obvious Wade was sorry to have to turn me down.


 
Here's a couple of cars I simply have to show even though I wasn't able to snag a ride on them.
 
In 1906-07 Ford made the Model K six-cylinder, under pressure from some of his investors, who wanted to sell bigger cars so they could make more profit per vehicle. Ford hated the Model K and after its production ended, Ford Motor Company never made another six-cylinder engine until 1941. According to the Model K guys in the tour, only 23 Model K Fords are known to still exist and only five of those cars are currently roadworthy (although several more are under restoration at present). Of the five roadworthy Model Ks, four of them were on this tour!
 

 

 
And if you think longitudinally-sited engines are a newer phenomenon, let me correct that impression. This is a 1904 air-cooled Franklin owned by Jeff Hasslen of Otsego, MN, and he says it is largely an unrestored car! In fact, he had to have a new set of wooden wheels made for it (by an Amish carriage maker, who are largely the only people making wooden wheels these days) and complained about the trouble he had getting the patina on the wheels to match the rest of the car's finish. If you'll look carefully at the near-side frame rail, you'll see that it is made of wood. Wooden frames continued to be used on Franklins until 1928; the company claimed they made the cars ride better on the rough roads of the day. Franklin also used full elliptic springs on their cars long after almost everyone else went to semi-elliptic springs. These early cross-engined Franklins are excellent performers, as they are quite light and had a four-cylinder engine when most cars had two or less.


 
And one final picture, showing the hitchhiker's viewpoint. I probably enjoyed this tour as much as any old car event I've attended in the last 50+ years. I'd love to attend it again next year, but the 1,300-mile drive it takes to get there is rather daunting.
 

[MattD]

Great pics. Glad it went well.

[Ecurie Martini]

Not in the same league for age but when I was in college (early-mid '50s) one of my fraternity brothers used as his daily driver a 1928 Packard touring car! (Ancient from today's view but, at the time, only 20+ years old). We visited several East coast women's colleges on a regular basis.

 

The car had, shall we say, significant "attractive" power.

[Cheater]

Consider this: since the New London to New Brighton tour is restricted to 1915 and earlier cars, there's not anyone alive today who remembers these cars when they were new.

[Pablo]

Thanks for the story and photos, Greg.

 

Maybe you can get one of those fancy ignition advance gizmos in the last photo for the late Jay Guard.

"Fast, Early, Slow, Late"

[Bill from NH]

"The late Jay Guard" implies the person is deceased. "Jay Guard who is habitually late" means the person is rarely on time.

[Pablo]

Cheater says he needs to retard his timing due to cheap pump gas and his advanced age. 

 

Kinda reminds me of Stewie's time machine.

 

[Tom Eatherly]

Wow! Fantastic-looking cars, Greg. That must have been a ton of fun.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Ecurie Martini]

Consider this: since the New London to New Brighton tour is restricted to 1915 and earlier cars, there's not anyone alive today who remembers these cars when they were new.

 

I have days when I feel that I should be able to remember them. So far as barriers to a return visit - if memory serves there was an alternate mode of transportation being developed during that era in Ohio and North Carolina that might offer a solution.

 

EM

[Half Fast]

Pfaa... Bicycle mechanics, what do they know!
 
It will never fly.
 
Cheers,

[airhead]

Can you run them in the Retro class?

[Cheater]

Nope... wrong motors.

[Dave Crevie]

There also was one of these type events in Brighton, WI. Don't know if it is still being done. They would occasionally let a slightly post-1915 car participate.

 

I shared driving responsibilities in a 1920 Bugatti Type 23 Brescia one year, the only one in the country at the time. It was held in the spring, on a 40 degree day. What an experience.

[MattD]

I think that is the event Greg went to.

[Cheater]

The one attended last week is in Minnesota, not Wisconsin, and as far as I know has always been held in August.

 

New London to New Brighton Run history

[Courtney S]

You are a blessed man!

[Dave Crevie]

The event in Wisconsin is absolutely in Wisconsin. I attended many times in the 1980s and '90s. I served more as staff, but had the good fortune to ride in, and even drive, some incredible vehicles.

 

I stopped attending when the VSCDA scheduled their Blackhawk Classic on the same weekend. Not by choice, but because there are only so many "open exhaust" days available at that track, caused by the urban encroachment era of 1985 to about 2000. People built houses a mile from the track, then initiated legal action to shut the track down. When the Irwin brothers bought the track, they were able to put an end to that, but had to abide by new rules regarding when and how often they could exceed the 92-decibel law.