1931 Model A Ford at the Great Valley House B&B. You have to really love old cars to own one.

1931 Model A Ford at the Great Valley House The Owner parked up the hill so he coud get it rolling downhill to get it started. He drove it here for his son's wedding. The bride and groom will ride in this car after the ceremony. When he left here he was looking for a mechanic the could fix the back fire problem.
1931 Model A Ford

I appreciate his maintenence problems. I have a 1974 MGB
1974 MGB

Jeff Benson:

2016 Boxster, See it here: www.greatvalleyhouse.com/Boxster

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First car: 1952 Hudson Hornet

First roadster: 1962 Austin Healy 3000 III

Still have: Computer free 1974 MGB

Previous Porsches since 1982: 924, 944, 944S, and four Boxsters; 97, 03, 08 & 2012

I drove 3 years to high school in one (manifold mounted heater and no defrost..brrr), survived a crash in one that took out the side of a '55 Ford Station Wagon, my son and bride got taken from the church wedding site in one in Northern Germany, and a guy just up the street drives one every day locally (un-mod'ed, original lever brakes and all).

They are surprisingly affordable.

I had a 1930 Model A Tudor when I was in high school. It was my dream to own and restore one and I worked a paper route to earn the money for it. Bought it in running condition but rough. Took it apart down to the engine and frame in our garage (my parents were delighted, especially the day the undercoating spray can exploded). Removed all rust, repainted, replaced brake parts, tie rod ends, lubricated springs, new professional blue-and-black paint, new top, repainted "cream" wheels with pinstripe, new interior from Lebaron Bonney with pro install. The engine had been running well before my restore job, so I left it mostly alone except for replacing the points and the coil and rebuilding the carb. Got it all reassembled and it was a fine-looking vehicle, I mean a potential prize winner, not bad for a high school kid actually. Unfortunately then I started having problems. It would even run great for about 10 minutes, then gradually the engine would run rougher and rougher. Found out that the points were burning up. Replaced the points 3 times in a day. Discovered later that points have to be lubricated or they burn up. Well, duh on me! Won the "Hard Luck" trophy at the car show that day. Meanwhile the steering would bind to the point it wouldn't turn more than about a 200' turning radius but I could live with that for a while because it was running fine ... until the distributor shaft broke. At that point I had to go off to college and I was really discouraged and so I decided the car was trying to send me a message. Gave up and auctioned it off through Kruse in non-running condition for almost the exact amount I had invested in it, so nothing much lost except my time. Dunno whatever happened to that car. It wasn't far off from being a great car. Somebody smart could have fixed the problems in about a day with the right amount of knowledge and time. Wish it could have been me. Can't pass up a Model A at a car show to this day.

Even though I had problems I never got around to fixing, I learned a lot about cars and tools. One thing I also learned about Model A's is that there is no such thing as a backfire problem. There is a timing problem, a carburetor problem, or a battery problem, but not a "backfire" problem. This guy has a discharged battery, that's all. He is putting it on the hill because you can start it with a discharged battery by rolling it. However, that's actually kind of silly because a Model A has an removable crank (like a Model T) that lets you start it without the starter motor. There is a slide-away cover on the grille shell where you fit in the crank. Cranking the Model A by hand was always kind of a cool trick to do in front of people. This guy needs to get his charging system checked out and put a battery maintainer on it. I wish my car had had so few problems.

My wife contacted the local classic car club and the owner found a mechanic who cleaned the points and got it running well enough for the wedding. He also ordered points, condenser and a fan belt to install later. From the description of the cracked fan belt it sounded like it had dry rot. Pretty simple stuff actually where cars were not too complicated and you could open the hood and find everything there in plain sight.

Jeff Benson:

2016 Boxster, See it here: www.greatvalleyhouse.com/Boxster

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First car: 1952 Hudson Hornet

First roadster: 1962 Austin Healy 3000 III

Still have: Computer free 1974 MGB

Previous Porsches since 1982: 924, 944, 944S, and four Boxsters; 97, 03, 08 & 2012

The car was chugging, not him.