“Willie” Wakens

In March, Dennis Gorder told members of the Wisconsin Capital Model T Club that Circus World Museum in Baraboo was holding its first Magnificent Motorcar Muster for pre 1940 cars. The club's famous Model T assembly team had been asked to put on their show under the big top. Team members Dan Lawler, Paul Elcher, Roy Wendt and Dave DeYoung knew that it was time to wake up "Willie" -- Dennis Gorder's 1926 Model T roadster -- to prepare for the big day. They had not done an assembly since the 100th Anniversary of Ford event in Dearborn, Mich., in 2003. Four years of inactivity made Willie a tough one to revive, but after five or six practice sessions, all was in order

When the team got to Circus World on the 11th is was raining, but the show went on as scheduled in the museum's Hippodome. Though the rain held the morning crowd down a bit, the team proved thatr its spirits weren't dampened by putting the car together in 23 minutes! Shortly after they were done, the rain stopped and the prewar cars began to roll into Circus World. The crowds followed. By the afternoon assembly session, which went even faster, the Hippodome was packed with people. In addition, four members of the team were car show trophy winners.

To learn more about this club visit http://wcmtfc.saturnpages.com.

By the way, KP Book (www.Krausebooks.com) has a great new book called The Legendary Model T coming out soon. It's by historian and researcher Tom Collins and Don Chandler, of WCMTFC was a big supporter and help in putting this full-color history of the Model T Ford together. Take my advice (this is not just a sales pitch) if you like Model Ts, you are just going to love this beautiful book.

P.S. Sorry I can't get the links to work. I'm going to see the IT guys now. In the meantime, just clip and paste the address into your browser.