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Cars

A bond as strong as Detroit steel

Got a problem with your Model A? Well, probably not. But if you do, these guys are eager to help.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published April 15, 2005

TAMPA - There's a story that members of the New Florida Region of the Model A Restorers Club like to tell. It points out what a special car the Model A is, and the special kind of fellowship that Model A owners tend to share.

A few years back, a club member named Harold Warrington decided to drive his 1930 Model A from his home in Pinellas County, out to the top of Pike's Peak in Colorado and back.

It wouldn't be an easy trip even for a late-model car. Warrington's car basically made the trip in good shape, but he ran into a little trouble on the way back.

Luckily, he had his national membership directory from the Model A Restorers Club in his car. Club members seldom travel without the directory.

Warrington called one number from the directory.

"He said that within five minutes there were 10 people there to help him," said Ray Anderson, a friend of Warrington and the treasurer of the New Florida Region of MARC.

The New Florida Region of MARC, based in Tampa, is one of the oldest car clubs in the area. It was founded in 1952.

It serves several functions - it hosts technical seminars on Model A maintenance and restoration every month and collects donations for the Shriners Hospital - but longtime members say that it's mostly about camaraderie.

"It's fellowship with other Model A owners," said Anderson, who joined the club in 1962. "We take trips. We were in Virginia recently, we've been to Tennessee and North Carolina and the other side of Florida. You're there for a week and you get to know people from all over the country. It's just a lot of fun."

The bond between Model A owners is really more about the car than the club. Jim Kaphingst, who also joined the club in 1962, said that he'll often get calls from people in the area with Model A's that have broken down.

He's usually happy to drop what he's doing and help out, either by delivering a part, getting into the engine with a wrench or simply talking through a procedure on the phone so the owner can get going.

If the driver asks Kaphingst how much he wants for the service, he declines payment.

"If they insist, I'll tell them it's $15, and with that they get membership in the club," said Kaphingst, a past president of the New Florida Region. "They usually join, and they stay active in the club."

That kind of attitude has helped the club maintain a roster of about 60 members. That's a respectable number for any car club, and it's especially remarkable because only 4.3-million Model A's were ever built, and the last one came off the assembly line 73 years ago.

Ford introduced the Model A in 1927, about five months after the last Model T. The Model A was more complex - it had more than 6,800 parts, as opposed to about 5,000 in the T - and came in seven body styles and four colors, ending Ford's infamous "any color as long as it's black" era.

It had a 22.5-cubic-inch engine with 24.03 horsepower and a three-speed transmission. It got 20 to 30 miles a gallon and topped out at around 65 miles per hour.

The new Model A Tudor Sedan, the most popular model, accounting for more than a quarter of all Model A's, sold for $495. The Fordor, the most expensive model, would run buyers about $570.

Kaphingst and Anderson have both owned so many Model A's over the years that they have lost count. Anderson figures he's owned maybe 12. Kaphingst, who says he loves cars but doesn't get attached to them, figures he's had 15 to 20 Model A's over the years - a small fraction of the 3,000 cars he figures he has owned.

Like many club members, they both said they enjoy working on Model A's. The mechanical work on the cars can be complicated at first.

"If you've worked on them before, it's easy," Anderson said. "If you've never worked on them before, it's not so easy."

The only real problem, Anderson said, is that the Model A is so different from modern cars that a lot of people are simply baffled by them.

It's not just mechanics who are baffled. Kaphingst said he's received several calls from newcomers to the Model A who think their cars have broken down. Kaphingst is able to talk them through the complicated starting procedure.

In most cases, it turns out that the problem is with the modern driver, not the antique car.

"A lot of people just don't know how to start them," Kaphingst said.

The New Florida Region of MARC is open to new members. Model A ownership is not required, though most members do own Model A's.

For membership information, call Bette Anderson at 813 837-3554 or e-mail betteandray@juno.com

[Last modified April 13, 2005, 16:40:07]