What do you like best about driving your A?

[BCCHOPIT]

D all of the above...
I would just like to add one more think. I love the history of the racing of these old cars and the guys that made all the speed parts in there back sheds with out all the modern tools of to day. I program CNCs every day and I look at the work these guys did and it just takes my breath away. Not only did they make nice looking parts but the speed and power they they got out of them is just very cool.
So with some time and lots of work I hope to get my coupe in the 100mph club.

I would have liked school a lot more if we had the history of speed class.

[Fred K-OR]

All of the above.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

All of the fine folks I've met as they've been attracted to the car.
1. A cop who said I might get a ticket for having too much fun!
2. Talking to a lady, her 9 year girl stretched out over my front fender and said, "Mother, I just love this car!"
3. After gassing Minerva at Bad Buds mini-mart, a blind man leaving the store said, "I heard a Model A door slam!" He asked if he could feel and touch the car. After determining she was a coupe with a trunk, asked her color, then he put his hand on the horn and said let'r rip!
4. An old Mexican man put his hand on my shoulder and said, "You're such blessed man to have such a fine car."
I could go on and on and on, but I type so slooow.

[V4F]

mine is a daily driver . i like it cause its COOL ! ............ steve

[harleyjj]

I love the feeling of nostalgia and the thought of how life must have been when our cars were new.

[Jim Parker Toronto]

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Originally Posted by TinCup

It's the only way at my age that 25 year old blondes will still smile and wave at me.

Very true... The "Miles of Smiles" from all the girls, from 7 to 70. The other day while picking up my 7 year old grandson at school, another little girl came up to me and said " you're the guy that drives that old car, aren't you?" and immediately started hitting on James so she could get a ride in it next summer! The fun just seems to rub off.....

[msmaron]

The relaxing of the drive, no radio nothing......calm, quiet and and nice slow drive!

[buyitsmart]

I agree with harleyjj:

I think about what life must have been like during the 30's. New things were being invented on a regular basis. People could create meaningful devices and products in their garage and in time they would change the world...people had character...everyone loved and respected America!

Freedom was valued and the Model T and Model A gave everyone a new sense of personal freedom. They gave us freedom and mobility on a level never experienced before...

[Deluxe Delivery]

Driving an A means being part of it. You are a very integral part of this magnificent machine, you determine when to shift, when to adjust the gav, retard the spark...and it all becomes automatic ! You become the car and it becomes you ! Then there's the whole time-travel thing. My favorite aspect of every antique car I have ever driven is that dreamy calm it gives you and your imagination soars and it IS 1930 again..at least inside my head. I can imagine the ugly 21stcentury fading into the background and the old former gas stations and stores glow in their faded glory...the houses and commercial buildings that were there then and have somehow managed to survive to this ungodly present day. It allows you to appreciate architecture, advertising, music, art, culture, integrity, personal responsibility and all the thousands of little things we have lost since the A was new. It is pride in America, pride in knowing how to actually fix something, pride in the virtues of Henry Ford and the resulting machines he created. Damn ! I gotta go drive something right now !

[Earle]

Cruising on a back country road, feeling and hearing this amazing piece of beautiful, historic machinery under me. AND feeling so good about the years of father-son bonding I'll never forget as he and I found the car back in 1983 and worked side by side doing the first restoration.

It's also pretty neat mentally escaping the modern-day madness and pretending I'm back in 1931 where "life was simple."

Earle

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Originally Posted by Roadster62

Dad's Model has been parked for 28 years, I should get it out again, maybe 2012 is the year.

Roadster62,
How about gettin' it going NOW, before it's valves stick or you get too old to drive!! I'm so old that I now hesitate to buy GREEN bananas.
If you hear groans in the night, that's the A Model asking you to bring it back to LIFE. Go out and stare at it's face, listen closely and it will talk to you! If it doesn't have a name, give it one.
P.M. me if you need help to pick a name. My Avatar '29 coupe is "VERMIN," since a white rat took up residence. Oh! by the way, they do leave WHITE droppings.

[JtownJoe]

Just the same reasons I have for owning it, Fun to Drive & I love the engineering of the whole package, I do drive it a lot more with F-150 4 speed, just makes it more enjoyable in traffic & much quieter on the road.

[buyitsmart]

Bill, speaking of vermin you bring back a memory of a rat that took up residence in my '31 Coupe. LAST WEEK!!!

I was working on the car outside and had the floorboards out and the next morning I saw broken shells from some nuts and some 'droppings' on my seat.
"A darn squirrel has gotten into my car", I thought, so I buttoned it up tight that night to keep them out.

The next morning I saw 'droppings' again on my seat.
"How could that squirrel have gotten back into the car?", I thought to myself.

That day my wife and I drove all over town smelling that squirrel in the car.

I was pretty upset at the smell.
The next day, again, we went all over town in the car.
Later that night on my way to church you won't believe what happened...

A large RAT jumped up on the small railing of my beautiful wood grain dash and walked from right to left across the windshield until it was behind the steering wheel not 3 inches from my left hand....

I freaked out so bad...I quickly reached between the steering wheel spokes with my right hand and caught the rat under its belly. I flicked it instinctively and it flew out the open window!! All of this probably happened within 4 seconds.

NOW I KNOW WHAT THAT SMELL WAS!!

My wife wasn't with me or we would have wrecked the car and if that window had not by chance been open and the vermin bounced off the closed window and landed in my seat, my wife would probably be putting flowers on my coffin because it scared the mess out of me!
THANK GOODNESS IT WENT OUT THE WINDOW!!

I can't imagine that rat running around my feet in the dark!!

After I got home, determined to find out how or where it came from, I tore that car apart. I found out it was 'living' under my seat. It had made a real nice nest under there and by the looks of things it had been there a while.

The two gentleman that restored my car were from the Boston area and I really believe the rat came from there...you know how I know??? Because it had a little sticker in it's nest that stated....

I VOTED AND I VOTED DEMOCRAT!

[Mikeinnj]

Originally Posted by BILL WILLIAMSON

Remembering many pleasant trips with Chief & Momma in a Tudor that he built maaany years ago. The view from my "Window to World," LARGE Rear side window, the great sounds, and smells that only an A Model can emit.
And what a driver Chief was, WOW, whether it was muddy roads, mountains, fording a stream, or skinny woods roads back in the "sticks" of S.E. Oklahoma, Chief was THE BEST!
He always said, "We are all children, in old skins," and I believe this as I remember the silly looks on his face as we traveled to more places than some get to see in a lifetime.
My greatest drive was when my son, Gregg, and I were in a very slow parade in a large mobil home park where many retired and disabled folks live and we were able to share "MINERVA," my black '30 coupe, with them.

Who are Chief and Momma ? Did we miss something here ?

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Chief was my dad, Dempsey, building & selling A Models, (so we could eat) down in the backwoods of S.E. Oklahoma. He was my fun, humorous, Model A mentor and had scads of old "wisdom" sayings that ring very true, even today.
Momma, my mother, Bertha Mae, was the head cook, bottle washer, vegetable gardener and great supporter of the Model A "garage" out front under the giant oak tree, complete with chain hoist hanging from a huge limb. Momma would save any single layer cardboard boxes so we would have plenty of emergency gasket material. We used an old cast iron wash pot for a hot tank and she kept the fire going under the pot and would "TURN" the parts while they cooked in Lye soap. An old Chevrolet rear fender was used as a moveable windbreak for the fire. (Chief would never sacrifice a Model A fender for this task!)
Without electricity, and before butane was invented, except for cars and radios, we lived much like folks did in the late 1800's.
When a car was "finished," our test drive was to load up, cross Red River on a rickety old ferry, and visit relatives in Will's Point, Texas, a two day trip. WHAT A GREAT LIFE IT WAS!

[Dusty]

Making it back home.

[edfueler]

I love pulling a nice inside turn on an un-asphalted surface and being able to look down and see that front wheel skeeting over the ground on that fine balance between understeer and oversteer and feather that throttle accordingly.

I love the wind blasting past my ears and feeling like I am doing 90mph when I'm doing about 45. I love taking the neighbourhood kids for rides in the pick up bed despite our ridiculous nanny-state type litigious society.

I also get a sense of pride from having built the ol' gal, a sense of having given the combination of parts a new lease of life and a feeling of extending those 80-something year old stories into the present and, hopefully, the future.

I love having shared the time with my friend during the build and having learned a few skills along the way.

Like others who have posted, I also get that sense of time transport..back to the 30s. (Actually, most things I own are deliberate time travel devices, from my atomic coffee maker to my penny farthing or 1920s path racer...and, being a bit of an addict of time travel, I like to use these things more or less, daily. Not a lot about the 21st century grabs me, really.)

I love driving a smile maker and, while it is a blast putting smiles on the faces of old folks and kids, alike, as they see me passing by, I love nothing more than seeing the smile on the face of an elegantly dressed lady in the passenger seat. There is not much that is finer.

[Purdy Swoft]

Originally Posted by BILL WILLIAMSON

Roadster62,
How about gettin' it going NOW, before it's valves stick or you get too old to drive!! I'm so old that I now hesitate to buy GREEN bananas.
If you hear groans in the night, that's the A Model asking you to bring it back to LIFE. Go out and stare at it's face, listen closely and it will talk to you! If it doesn't have a name, give it one.
P.M. me if you need help to pick a name. My Avatar '29 coupe is "VERMIN," since a white rat took up residence. Oh! by the way, they do leave WHITE droppings.

Bill, your posts are really good and I enjoy reading them. Keep them coming!!!

[Earle]

Oh - another thrill when driving our '31 roadster: On a warm summer or fall day, with the top down, pulling up beside some poor guy who just knew that he was the coolest thing on the road with his new convertable Porsche, Mercedes, Jag, Mustang, etc. - then watch him try his hardest to avoid looking over at me because he saw me coming in his rear-view mirror and instantly knew he was no longer the coolest thing on the road. I know he's dying to check the roadster out but doesn't want to give me the satisfaction of his "admiring" a car other than his own.

How sweet it is....

(How prideful of me! - But justified when it comes to our beautiful, eye-catching Model A's!)

Earle

[dr.j]

Several cold pints at the end of the road.