MTFCA Forum

To any Model T owner on this forum:

What is the best memory you have had with your beloved Model T? The most cherished, memorable, and notable moments with your T. If any have pictures you want to share, you are more than welcome to do so.

My best moments have been three or four weeks long. Two drives to Detroit and back.

Any after-dinner drive on a summer evening is good too.

My grandpa was born in 1897, was married in 1919 when he got home from the Great War and from 1920 to 1928 had six kids, just in time for the Great Depression. He once said the times were so hard trying to support a family of eight, he would not relive those times for any amount of money.

In 1970, when at 16, I bought my 1926 Model T Coupe and was restoring it, Grandpa was very interested, for he had a Model T in his youth in Georgia and even told me of the time he suffered a broken arm when cranking it. Two years later, in 1972, I completed the restoration on my T and for my first drive, drove fifty miles from my home in Brandon, Florida, to Lakeland, where Grandpa lived. By then, he was 75, weak and bedridden from lung cancer due to having had a lung removed the year before. When I drove up, Grandpa got up out of bed, got dressed and came outside for his first and last ride in my Model T. I shut it off just so I could crank it from the front. He loved watching me crank it and listened intently at the buzz of the four coils. When it roared to life he laughed and clapped and continued to Leigh and smiled as we drove along. For that short drive, he was happy and young again. I asked him. If he wanted to drive it, but he said he’d better not. Just to experience a ride in a Model T, once again, with its’ unique sights, sounds and smells, was enough for him. A month later, in November, 1972, I left for Marine Corps boot camp. Grandpa died in August, 1973 and I’m grateful I was able to complete the restoration and keep my promise to Grandpa to give him a ride in my T. Jim Patrick

My biggest thrill around old things is seeing them still doing what they
were meant to do, in a genuine, not staged or contrived way. I use my
TT that way, and my best memories are those where others have that same
reaction to seeing it just doing what it was made to do, whether that is
just going down the road with a load, piling it up with lumber, or hauling
firewood. The smiles it puts on peoples' faces is the best thing about owning
an old vehicle. And then there are the kids ! Some kids are destined to be
rust and grease nerds. And they really get revved up over the old truck. So,
the answer isn't a single event. It is a recurring event of bringing a certain
happiness to others. The owning and driving it is just a bonus.

The 2008 parade in Richmond Inidana during the centennial tour. HUNDREDS of people of all ages came out to see hundreds of Model Ts drive by. It made so many people, including us, so very happy. I think I will always remember that day.

My most memorable experience with my T ('15 Touring) was driving from home (Fayetteville, AR) to Richmond and back for the Centennial in '08. It took me 4 days going and 3 days coming back. On the last day going, I met up with other members from our Model T club and drove with them. Other than that, it was just me and my car. Driving up there, touring around Richmond for the week, and driving home totalled about 1,800 miles. Good times.

Lots of great memories. The most recent was using my Grandfather's '26 Fordor and my dad's '25 Touring in my wedding. My mom & dad used the touring in their wedding, in 1950, and I used it in mine, in 2017.

The Touring has been there for some of the best, and worst, times of my life.

That’ll easily be descending Pikes Peak in the 1976 VMCCA Glidden Tour. I was in the 1923 Ford touring that I kept from 1966 ( first T) until 2016. Had a Ruckstell and was very concerned about it coming out of low because I only had lined internal emergency brake shoes. The 17 miles downhill with retarded spark and gas took nearly an hour. White knuckles on the steering wheel but most memorable

Anytime I show my T at a local car show I can count on my best little buddy to be there to greet the folks. That's Rosemary, my granddaughter at 3 years old.

Collecting parts for my 2 projects I am building and raising cane with Hank for getting me into this hobby. So far I have never driven one and building 2 at the same time
LOL

When I was 10 or 11 years old my grandfather put me in the drivers seat of the TT, set the brake lever at "neutral" and told be to push down on the pedal when he said to. We were picking up full fruit boxes that were in stacks in the orchard. Grandpa and my older cousin (who was big enough to lift the boxes) would load, then it was my job to move the truck forward to the next stack. The first time I was told to "Go" I killed it. Boy, if looks could kill someone else would be telling this story.

A photo taken about the same time ca 1957, Grandpa on the truck and my cousin handing him a box of fruit.

Spending time with my granddaughter and my father, ( Dad,chauffeuring a 100 year old veteran in parade). .

It's hard to pick a best memory after 56 years of Model 'T'ing.
One of my favorite was the 2010 trip to Glacier with my wife and 2 1/2 year old Granddaughter. We made a half seat for the back so the car seat could sit lower. She had Joy all to herself back there for 11 days. 3 days each way and the tour. We logged 70 hours driving and 1100 miles that trip. It was a delightful trip. We stopped at playgrounds once or twice a day to let her burn off energy. We traveled by ourselves with no spare tire but had no real problems. The traffic on Montana secondary roads was scarce until we got to Kalispell. That was our second MTFCA tour. I wish they were closer.

In 2010 we took this car to Yosemite. Our son and grandson met us there and Jake our grandson was very eager to drive it. We went to Glacier Point. Now Jake is old enough to drive the T.
Norm

I have had lots of great times in T's, every tour over the years has been special and it all started in 1959 when I got my first T and my dad taught me to drive it in the cow pasture herding cows. I can still hear him nudging me and shouting push the spark up on hills.

This is mine: The boy is taller than I am now. In the first picture, he is 7. The second picture, he is 17

EVERY time I go out in the T is my best time. 'Cause I never know if it'll be MY LAST.