Driving a Prewar Car is an Adventure

A few weeks ago we enjoyed the WPC National Meet in Chicago, but when they tried to give out the award for the prewar car driven the farthest distance, they had to keep lower the miles-driven figure since none of the older cars built before World War II had been driven a long distance. Too bad. This past weekend we drove our 1936 Pontiac Deluxe Six Touring Sedan to the Circus Museum Show in Baraboo and the Botham Vineyards Winery Concours in Barneveld. The car doesn't go fast (50 mph tops) and it has no blinkers, but we still had a good, fun 400-mile ride.

Unlike some hobbyists, we prefer driving Interstates (because we can get in the right lane and let faster cars pass) and we stuck to I-90 for over half of the trip. On small 2-lane highways, the other motorists tend to get more "pushy." We have to admit that a few of them tried dumb things, but in an old car, we're always in "defensive" driving mode.

W also traversed some rural back roads and chugged (very slowly) over a couple of steep hills. It was 85-95 degrees most of the time, but everything worked fine. The fuel pump leaked a bit of gas when we parked on a hill at the show, so we got out the tool kit and tightened the bolt on top of the pump and nothing leaked on the way home. Try that with a modern electric fuel pump that's leaking!

We saw a few '50s cars along the way, but where were all the prewar models?