2007 Texas to Colorado Model T Tour
June 20th thru July 4th, 2007
joining the "Search
for the Mohigans Tour”
and the Model T
Club of Northern Colorado.
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In spite of the breakdown yesterday,
we were determined to go ahead with our drive up Pike’s
Peak. Part of our group has never been up Pike’s
Peak. Some have been up before but not in a Model T.
Some have already done this run and talked so much about
it that they have encouraged the others to want to go. It
is a very tall, very beautiful mountain, the centerpiece of the
range that serves as a backdrop to Colorado Springs.
We took five cars up the
mountain. Bruce and Barbara Lilleker are in the photo at
right.You can’t see them but they also had Bailey and
Emma. The
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dogs were riding with them because Martin
and Patty were riding in the Fordor with Ross and Luke.
Denny Irvine and his son met us at the gate in his T.
Nicky and Austen were in their Touring car and we were in
our pickup. We left Martin’s car and most of our luggage
at The Rocky Top Motel in Green Mountain Falls, just up from
Pike’s Peak Road, where we stayed last night.
Our drive up was not without
challenges. At the very first pull-out, Austen came in
with his radiator steaming. We had barely started the
ascent and we added two gallons of water to his radiator!
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This was taken at the Crystal
Reservoir Visitor’s Center, a huge lake which serves as
the water supply for Colorado Springs. People were
fishing, boating, even swimming. There are actually three
lakes as a part of this reservoir system and all are visible as
you go higher.
The Pike’s Peak Road is
a part of the Pike National Forest, run by the Department of
Agriculture but managed by the City of Colorado Springs.
There is a $10 per person fee to go up which is used to
maintain the roads but also serves to limit the number of
people attempting this steep climb. Today,
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thousand feet, just at your elbow.
You go through dense forest, pine forests, tundra, and
then you get above the treeline for the last 3,000 feet.
And that is just on the way up. On the way down,
you reverse the process except that you have the added
attraction of being able to see the thousands of feet of air in
front of you.
You also have the opportunity
to see some of the most amazing sights in the world. The
Rockies are magnificant and awe-inspiring, and to have the
ability to drive or walk around in the middle of such beauty is
a gift. In a Model T, it is even more wonderful.
It took us three hours to get to the top
of Pike’s Peak. The record set by a racer going up
was 10.4 minutes at speeds over 130 mph. Ross wanted you
to know.
Denny Irvine of Willis, Texas, extended his
vacation so he could do the Pike’s Peak climb with us.
This is his son’s first ride in a T.
Martin and Patty rode up with Ross and
Luke. Four people in a Fordor makes for a slow ride but
they made it all the way to the top!
Ben, Marian Rose, and me in front of the
sign to prove to those who love me that I really made it all
the way. Nicky and Austen and Bruce and Barbara drove in
their 1915’s and were swamped by people who could not
believe they had come all the way from England and had driven
these 92-year-old cars up Pike’s Peak.
We didn’t get back to
the motel until around 3:00PM and the tires had barely stopped
turning before the “Dream Team” had started tearing
Martin’s engine apart again. Steve Caniff, a Model
T man in Colorado Springs, had the part we needed and sent it
to us by way of Denny Irvine this morning. Steve is well
known in Model T circles for his generousity and support of
fellow drivers and we are grateful for his help.
In this photo, you can see
Bruce, Luke, Ross, and Martin physically lifing the engine from
the car. Even though the missing pin is from the
transmission,
the engine and the transmission are an
intregal part of each other and have to be pulled as one unit.
We are working in the parking lot of the Rocky Top Motel
where we will be spending another night.
Watching this team in action
is a sight to behold. Everyone has a job. If there
was a question or someone didn’t know what came next,
someone else knew. You can’t see Bruce Lilleker in
this photo because he is actually under the car. In the
picture below, our friend Mark Conlee has provided Ross a
relatively clean surface on which to work. Barbara,
Nicky, and Patty pulled out chairs and they watched,
offering helpful advice and personal
encouragement. The men started working around 4:00PM and
didn’t stop until the engine fixed and back in the car at
6:15. Then, after a quick supper and yet another
birthday celebration for Austen Bromley (today REALLY IS his
birthday), they were back to work hooking up the wiring,
installing the radiator, and getting it started. We all
cheered when Martin turned the ignition switch and the motor
started running.
As always on a project like
this, there are still a few bugs to work out and they
weren’t ready to call it a night. But Martin and
Patty should be able to drive home in their own car when we
leave tomorrow.
These are the infamous
pins. The one on the left is the new replacement part for
the triple gear that we were given by Steve Coniff. The
one on the right is the broken one. They are made of
hardened steel. See how it has simply sheared off? In
case you are wondering how this happened, we don’t really
know either.
Luke Cordes is assisting in
the installation of the engine. There is not a lot of
room in the front seat of a Model T and everything is a tight
squeeze. Luke has been a great asset on this trip, partly
because of his mechanical ability and partly because he is such
fun to have around.
As a side note to the
non-Model T people reading this, the handle in the foreground
is an emergency brake. It is not the regular brake, and
it is not the gear shifter which is what a lot of people guess.
The engine is running, the
car is reassembled, and it looks like his car will have a
chance to get home under its own power. There is a
possibility that Martin could have driven home with only two of
the triple gears in place but it would have been a slow and
worrisome trip. It’s a long way to go home and come
back with a trailer. It’s a little too far for AAA
to come after him. Driving it home is the best way to get
it there.
We’re leaving in
the morning by way of the Phantom Canyon Road.
We’re close to the northern end and we want those
who missed it on the way up to have the chance to see it before
we head back to Texas. Wish us luck!
