Horseless driving from years ago

Seventy-nine vehicles built before 1916 drive through Cobourg on `Horseless Carriage' tour

Aug 04, 2007

Special to the Star

Cobourg–Auto museums may be fascinating, but there's nothing like watching history as it drives by.

That's the idea behind the Horseless Carriage Club, which held a five-day tour from July 23, based here in Cobourg.

Owners came from as far away as Wisconsin, Kansas, Florida and Georgia, bringing with them an incredibly diverse range of vehicles, all built prior to Jan. 1, 1916. It was a veritable who's-who of the early auto industry: familiar names such as Ford, Buick and Cadillac, but also Paige, Winton, EMF, Mitchell, Maxwell, Kissel and REO, among others.

"It started in 1977, as a friendship tour between the Southern Ontario club and the North Jersey region," says John Smith of Orillia, a member of the tour committee who drove his 1913 Ford Model T. "The cars went away for a while, but they're coming back. They're so much fun to drive.

"Ten years ago, if we got eight at our events, we were doing well. Now we have 79 cars registered for the tour."

While there are many explanations for the 1916 cut-off, Smith believes it's because 1915 was the last year for most "reliability runs," endurance events entered by manufacturers to prove the quality of their often persnickety products.

"So many got perfect scores (by then) that they were no longer needed," he says.

Reliability is still the name of the game. Unlike a static car show for the public's benefit, the Horseless Carriage tour is for the owners. The cars initially come in on trailers, but once they arrive, they're driven as much as 160 km each day, usually around 50 km/h.

Jerry and Joyce Chase of Connecticut spent much of Wednesday's tour hauling me in the back seat of their Massachusetts-built 1905 Stevens-Duryea. The aluminum-bodied car uses a 20 hp four-cylinder engine and rides very smoothly, considering it's 102 years old.

"I found this one in the Catskills; it belonged to a fellow's mother," Jerry Chase says. "I went to see it, and there it was in the corner, but with no brass trim on it. I said, `It's too bad you don't have the lights,' and she said, `Oh, wait,' and she had them in a burlap bag."

Regular use is the best possible medicine for these cars. Most run smoothly, emit very little tailpipe smoke, and for those not equipped with self-starters – a 1912 innovation courtesy of Cadillac – they start on the first crank.

When they don't, their simplicity works in their favour. When a Ford Model T broke a valve retainer, the owner found someone who had one, and then pulled the engine head, replaced the retainer, and was back on the road within half an hour.

At Cobourg's waterfront, where more than 100 cars gathered for the afternoon, 20 that were at least a century old drove past a viewing stand under their own steam, including a 1905 Stanley Steamer that did so literally.

Even historically priceless vehicles get driven. There was Charles and Georgina Neville's 1912 Wolseley from Whitevale, Ont., a British-built model that was one of the first sold through the company's Toronto dealership; it was purchased new by John Ross Robertson, founder of the Toronto Telegram.

There was Neil and Betty Butter's Cobourg-based 1910 McLaughlin, believed to belong to GM of Canada founder Sam McLaughlin himself, and featured prominently at his 90th and 100th birthdays.

Peter Emmans of Woodstock brought his 1905 Riley motorcycle, the oldest authentic one in the world; and one of four Kerry motorcycles left, a 1903 that was a veteran of the first London-to-Brighton run in 1934.

And from Port Perry, there was a little Ford with a lot of history: a 1903 Model A – not to be confused with the better-known 1928 Model A – belonging to Dennis and Stephanie Huron. Made in the first year of Ford production, it was purchased by Dennis's great-great-grandfather, and is documented by Ford as the world's oldest Ford still in its original family.

"This was Whitby's first car," Dennis Huron says. "They drove it for a few years and then stuck it in a barn. It sat for 50 years until my father married my mother and found it, and he collected the pieces and put it away for another 25 years. We restored it for the hundredth anniversary of Ford, but it still has the original leather seats."

The car was honoured at the company's centennial in Dearborn, and at the re-enactment of the Wright Brothers' first flight; the glovebox doors are autographed by Ford executives and Wright descendants.

Following the awards and a lakeside dinner, the participants got back into their cars and returned to the hotel, in preparation for the next day's tour from Cobourg to Oshawa.

Jerry and Joyce Chase put on their period-piece duster coats and hats, and started up their Stevens-Duryea.

"We don't really own these cars," Jerry Chase says, expressing a sentiment echoed by numerous participants. "We preserve them for the future."

Toronto Star