How I lost My Mind and Bought My First Model “T” By Lee Cook
I am an old Drag Racer. We ran a fairly fast Bracket Racing car for many years. As I got older and my mind started to go, I began looking for something slower to do. So, I went back to flying gliders, but that’s another story. To get on with this, one night I was sitting in my comfortable chair in Wrightwood. My wife Anna was upstairs looking at the Show Low Arizona Facebook page, where we have a vacation home. Suddenly I heard a scream, “Lee. Come here and look at this.” Naturally, thinking the world was ending, I ran to the computer. There to my wondering eye (plagiarism 101), I found her looking at an ad for a 1917 Model T depot hack. It was cute as a bug and located in a town only about 30 miles from our Arizona place. She had that look in her eye, so we left for Arizona the next day. Luckily, I had a car trailer left over from my racing days stored there. So, wife, trailer, and checkbook in hand, we met with the car owner and found the hack to be in good condition. It even ran on occasion! We took it back to California and had fun with it for a while, but as it had neither Rockey Mtn. brakes nor a Ruckstell axle, it wasn’t much good in the mountains. I paid $4500 for the car, sold it to my neighbor Leroy for $6000, he sold it to a guy down the street for$8000, he resold it to his neighbor for $9000. By the time that car got to town, it was worth a fortune. Flush with cash and low on common sense, we replaced it with a 1914 speedster, (loved that car) and a 1925 coupe (hated that one).
I am hoping the fatal stage of the disease has passed, and we and our current 1927 roadster will be able to live out our lives in peace. Lee Cook
PLEASE NOTE THE IMAGE PRESENTED IS NOT THE VEHICLE REFFERED
TO IN THE ARTICLE BUT INSTEAD IS FROM THE WONDERFUL WEBSITE: https://www.classicandcollectorcars.com/
How I got into Model Ts
My Journey to a Model T (sort of) by Dave Gillotti
My journey to owning a Model T (well, actually a TT) started long ago and was mostly never about a Model T. I guess it started for me when my parents bought a new car and the old ‘50s era Dodge was relegated to collecting dust and spider webs in the back yard. My friends and I, in typical young-boy fashion, sat behind the wheel of our imaginary race car pushing this pedal and that pedal while speed shifting the three-on-the-tree shifter into various gears without really knowing what each position should do.
Fast forward a number of years to high school when, at 17, I bought my first car-a 1969 Mustang fastback (wish I had it back!). It only had the small block 302 Windsor v8 but tinkering here and there led to a full-blown engine rebuild with many high-performance extras. This is where the love of auto mechanics hit me.
After serving time abroad with Uncle Sam I returned home and married my junior high school interest. This is where the antique car bug hit me. Her father had a 1925 Chevy Superior K in (or should I say, all over) the garage. Chassis on one side, body panels here and there, uncounted coffee cans of nuts, bolts and screws, engine and trans in a shed out back. Over the years when time allowed I helped him put it back together. This was the first antique car I ever drove.
Over the years my wife and I dreamed of having our own antique car, but my college, new house and kids always put one out of reach. Sadly, the time arrived on the death of her parents. We had to have the car appraised for probate, and while at the appraiser’s business we saw a nice red touring car. It was a 1925 Maxwell/Chrysler Model 58F, which we bought. This sparked an interest in a good friend of mine. After a few years he found a beautifully restored 1917 Model T Runabout on the internet. We took a road trip to pick it up. Soon he joined the Riverside/Corona Model T club, and persuaded me to join even though I didn’t own a Model T.
Several years later (post COVID) a former club member was selling a 1926 Model T Touring (see the car on this website under the For Sale section) and a 1925 Model TT truck. Now ownership in a Model T was at hand. I first thought of the Model T Touring, but it looked too much like my Maxwell, and the TT looked very interesting the way it was set up. My wife and I decided on the TT. It took a fair amount of aggravation dealing with the DMV and a good deal of TLC to get it on the road (see my post about fixing a Model T stuck in direct drive on the Tech Talk Portal of this website).
After three months of bureaucracy and sometimes major renovations the TT is ready for the road. Now my big problem is learning to carefully drive a Model T. I’m learning fast!