Ladies in A's

[lance leblanc]

Reading threads pertaining to Club Memberships, Favorite things about our A's, Questions we are asked and a few others... has me thinking about my own local club, its members, this forum and its readers and contributers.

My A is actually our A (my wife and I).
Not including spouses, we have at least 2 participating female club members who are the owners of their A's in a club larger than 40 members.
I have been reading this forum for quite some time now and I don't think I have read one post from a lady.
Which leads to my question: How many ladies out there own and drive their A's and are there any on this forum?

 

[Jordan]

After going on many model a tours & trips, I have noticed one thing: The Fort Worth club is probably one of the more female active clubs. Just as many females drive THEIR cars on tours as the men do. The women are eager to learn how to drive, work & participate in the club. The board is half females with a female President and VP. I can think off the top of my head of 7 or 8 active women who are single or their husbands have no interest in the cars, yet they come anyways (not counting the women who's husbands come with them). A lot of clubs discourage the women from driving or doing anything but baking, but that's not the case here. I know my grandma always drove the cars and helped work on them. One time she put an engine together that was in my sedan & she was always on the Board of Directors or held some committee chair.

When on the High Country Tour in '09, I noticed a lot of female drivers in Colorado.

 

[Great Lakes Greg]

I don't know her personaly, but foxfire42 is on this forum and has a fantastic fleet including a fine point truck.

 

[29ModelA]

Technically my name is on the title, but the car is my wife's. She made the initial purchase and is the one that started the search for a pre WWI car. I do the work and drive it for now, but once it is up to spec and I can be confident in it she will drive it - well unless we get another so I can keep this one

 

[msmaron]

My wife is a very very active member of our club and not only drives all the time but us doing her own fine point restoration.

 

[2manycars]

My girlfriend has her own early 28 open cab pickup, which I restored 15 years ago. I modified the seat to accommodate here diminutive frame.

 

[Tom Endy]

We have two ladies in our club, that I know of, who own and drive their own Model A.

One has had the car since she was 16 years old and drove it to high school. It was her first car, she paid $75 for it. I won't tell her age, but she has had the car for a number of years. Her and I were going to school on the same campus at the time. She was in high school and I was just out of the navy going to college. We did not know each other then. The joke her and I share is that Pasadena City College in those days had the last two years of high school on the campus. When I started going there some of my ex G.I. high school buddies I re-united with pointed out to me that some of the good looking girls on this campus are not 18 years old. Her car is a very original 31 coupe and is in very good condition.

Next Saturday I will be hosting a seminar at my house where a number of club members will participate in a preventative maintenance effort on the car that will include installing four new tires. I made up a check list of all the things we are going to do that includes pulling all four brake drums and packing the wheel bearings. The plugs and distributor will be pulled, cleaned, lubticated, and the points and timing adjusted. The motor oil will be changed and the chassis lubricated. The brakes will be checked and adjusted if necessary. A number of other things will also be attended to.

The second lady has a very nice restored 31 tudor and it has a Ryan overdive installed. Her grandfather bought the car new in 1931. He was a commercial fisherman in the San Francisco area and one of the first things he did with the car was install port and starboard running lights on the top of the front fenders. When her grandfather passed away the car had been sitting for a number of years and was in dire need of attention. The grand daughter obtained the car from his estate and had the car restored at a professional restoration shop.

She had the running lights restored and installed back on the car. The first time I saw the car years ago I thought what a dumb thing to do to a Model A, untill she told me the story. I would have left them there also.

We have a similar preventative maintenance seminar in mind for this lady as well.

Tom Endy

 

[Chuck Sea/Tac]

we have several women in the gerties that drive/own/work on model A's, which brings up what was discussed today at a planning meeting. Shouldn't the car game "gentlemen start your engines" be more up to date, by being called, something like, "drivers start your engines?"
It seems, more and more ladies are getting involved! Chuck

 

[lance leblanc]

The ladies who own and drive A's in our club are amongst the most active members. The club Pres. owns two, a Fourdoor and a coupe. Another while she drives a Shay, she and her husband own several antique cars a couple of which are A's. She also manages getting the cars cast in movies being shot all over. The most resent to use sevral of the clubs cars is "The Butler" with Forest Whitaker and Opra Whinfrey.

 

[Pete]

I don't know her personaly, but foxfire42 is on this forum and has a fantastic fleet including a fine point truck.

I have met her and she is one of the most ardent model A'ers I have ever met. Real nice gal.

My wife drives "our" A quite a bit but of late, she has been bugging me to put the power steering back on. A sign of old age????

 

[glenn in camino]

I have 6 Model As, so I guess that means that my wife of 49 years owns 3 of them. She drives whatever one she wants to but not very often. She's actually a better driver than I am. She is also the current President of our MAFCA club, The Hangtown A's in Placerville Ca. and goes on all the club tours. She's made the last almost 50 years the best.

 

[Bill Lee/Virginia]

Glenn:
I think your wife owns all 6 of them. Remember the old saying, "what is her's is her's and what's yours is hers. Just an old Virginia quote. I enjoy all your posts. Happy New Year.
Bill Lee/Virginia Peninsula

 

[400A-64]

My wife Diane was the navagator on our 1982 Around the World Tour. All the ladies on the World Tour were schooled in driving the "A" in various driving conditions. Judi McMillin made it a point to take a turn driving in every country. Diane drove in several couintries if I needed a break for a while. MAFCA has a program to instruct ladies in driving and simple maintanence and or major parts identification. We usually arrainge to have someone other than a spouse do the driving instruction.(prevents divorces!!!) Upon completion the ladies recieve a jacket patch that says "This Lady Drives A Model A"
Bruce Davis
a400usa@nccn.net

 

[Purdy Swoft]

Here is my daughter and grand daughter in the coupe that I gave them. My daughter grew up with this car and I felt she should have it now. My grand daughter can grow up with it.

 

[Purdy Swoft]

My wife at the throttle of the speedster.

 

[Jordan]

Here's a photo of one of our members who is a past President, Laura Grunewald. She uploaded this pic on facebook this morning. She took her roadster for a drive in 35* weather.

 

[Purdy Swoft]

Deb driving the roadster. She can double clutch and shift the gears as well as I have ever seen. She can also set the points and timing. She says that it feels like it was built for her. I told her that it was. I drive it when I want to but I tell people that I'm the riding mechanic.

 

[Purdy Swoft]

Here's a photo of one of our members who is a past President, Laura Grunewald. She uploaded this pic on facebook this morning. She took her roadster for a drive in 35* weather.

Its good to see another 30-31 standard roadster with a lady driver.

 

[steve s]

Here's the four wives at the wheels of our little group on the way home from the 2007 MARC meet in Williamsburg. My wife took ladies driving lessons offered at the meet (highly recommended). She had never driven a stick shift before, and it was my first time ever riding in the passenger seat.

Steve

 

[P.S.]

it was my first time ever riding in the passenger seat.

Steve

There truly is something sexy about sitting next to your wife while she is driving your car that you worked on or restored, isn't there? Maybe it's like the primal "Man hunt and kills beast, wife prepares and cooks beast for husband" thing. It's almost as good as seeing the wife joyfully decorating the house I built for us. But better.

Model A windows down on a country road in the passenger's seat while your wife drives with her long hair occasionally carried by the wind, whipping you in the face. Heavenly!