oldcarfudd

Ditto on the diesel Touareg.

VL, you don't need better weather to enjoy a ragtop! The Stanley picture was taken at an event on New Year's Day a couple of years ago. The temperature was 28, and I was wearing cross-country ski clothes and a snowmobile suit. The Biuck picture was taken at Hershey in the rain, and includes me, my son and my grandson. The others were just fun times.

We sure can agree on not letting kids slide down our fenders! And I can erupt in a hurry if a parent encourages his kid to treat my car, or anybody's car, like an amusement park toy. Fortunately, most people are decent.

Giving rides and going to shows are related ways of engaging with the public, but not the same thing. I give lots of rides. In my steam car, I ask kids whether they know "The Little Engine That Could." They all do. I find a hill, start up it, and slow to a crawl. CHOO - - CHOO - - choo - - choo - - CHOO - - CHOO - - choo - - choo - - I - - THINK - - i - - can - - I - - THINK - - i - - can. When they're all hollering it in cadence with the engine, I feed it a bit more steam and away we go: I THOUGHT i could I THOUGHT i could. The kids love it. Often, someone will ask me if it's OK to take a picture of his kid in front of my car. I say no, it's not OK - put him behind the wheel! A couple of our town's charitable groups raise money by running silent auctions. I offer half a day of Model T instruction, and get several bids. I've taught several neighbors, including kids with learners permits, how to drive a T. And yes, I let them do it. So if you want to chew somebody out for not sharing his cars with the public, pick on somebody else.

If the charity is charging the public to come and see the cars, so that my car's presence might draw more people and more money for the charity, then I'll take a car to help the charity. But if the public gets in free, and I have to pay to enter my car, no way. If it's a charity I choose to support, I'll donate the entry fee and then enjoy my day doing something else. I have five pre-World-War-1 cars (one will be for sale soon), and I get no thrill out of spending a day surrounded by hot rods.

My cars are for driving, not (usually) for showing. Other than Hershey, I don't enter shows I have to pay for. I'll be happy to let you look at my car for free, but I'll be damned if I'll pay to have you come and look at it.

OldCarFudd because I'm an old fudd with old cars. When I post tour reports to the HCCA website I usually sign off with Gil Fitzhugh the Elder, to distinguish myself from my son, who's also in the hobby. So I get called Fudd or Elder on tour, and people sometimes respond to one of my posts by calling me GFtE.

Last year's Hershey Hangover, 2-1/2 days of brass-era touring for AACA and HCCA members right after Hershey, went there. Here's the article I wrote for the HCCA website. https://hcca.org/BOARDS/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1135&sid=6f3165b49b0e5ac3c27325631f4ac01d

Also Petrel, I believe, and Sears highwheelers. And my self-propelled modern snowblower!

JamesR - I've heard that the word dashboard comes from horse-and-buggy days. When the horse was dashing, he was kicking up whatever was on the road. The dashboard, at the front of the buggy, kept this stuff off the passengers. In early cars, the dashboard came between the power plant and the passengers, too, and kept the messy engine from slinging oil on the people.

Just what is a "non-driven show car"? Do you drive it from your garage to the trailer, and from the (possibly remotely parked) trailer to the show field and back? Do you drive it to get gas? While you're at it, since it's a nice day, do you go on into town and get a haircut? If your Aunt Minnie comes to visit, do you take her for a ride? If an insurance company gives you a price break because of minimal use, and you have an accident, you'd better be mighty sure that the use you were making of the car was well within the minimal use the company thought it had agreed to. Otherwise, I'd suggest you stick with companies that insure driven antiques, even if it costs you a few more pesos a year.

When I park my Stanley, I lock the throttle and shut off the main fuel. If I can't keep an eye on the car, I shut off the pilot fuel, too. There are at most 300 people in the country who would know how to steal it, and none of those 300 would do so. On the other hand, I avoid places that only allow valet parking.

It was just a guess. But that shifter lever looks like the one on a Maxwell planetary transmission. Hupmobiles had sliding gear transmissions with very different levers.

Maxwell. Possibly an A or AA.

It'll be a long drive back from Patagonia!