This is pretty bitchin'. In 1941, two Argentineans got a hair up their asses to drive their model-t speedster from Buenos Aires to New York. They gathered some dough from some sponsors like Excelsior, Fairchild, and Raid, packed their little speedste... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
pretty kool, should had ended story with, no word "yet" if they made it home, they could had taken the long route.
That is a great story!!!! Wonder how long the whole trip took them? Henry must have thought it was good enough to dislodge him from his office too!! I totally dig the route map painted on the tail of the car!!
Great photo/post. "Raid" isn't a sponsor, it describes a trip of great distance in a car, usually trans-continental, by people from somewhere else. Cris
Very Cool.... Dem Dudes are Crazy...inna good way! I bet thats a longassed drive in todays standards/road conditions/technology let alone in a Model T Speedster....
a few months ago i started taking Argentine Tango lessons, tango started in Buenos Aires, so i have been thinking of going there within the next year, maybe i should drive, maybe my 55 fairlane with a y-block?
Several years ago I met a couple at a local show that were doing the same thing in a 29 Essex sedan bone stock! They were driving to Alaska,had a baby on the way & another while still on the road back.They have written a book (Follow your dream) I thinks its called,I have it here somewhere. This guy knew nothing about cars let alone an Essex & still had the desire to sell everything & see the country. Amazing story!
thats awsome. If you like these kind of stories, try to fine a copy of "Cross country in a curved dash Olds" It gives a lot of early car history along with the trip.
not to be redundant , as i think it's been mentioned on the board before, but "Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip" is a great flick from PBS and is in a similar vein. info: Get set for an adventure that marked a new era in America! Film-maker Ken Burns presents the hilarious 1903 saga of the first transcontinental automobile trip. On a visionary whim and a $50 bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson became the first person to drive an automobile across the continent. His arrival in New York City, after every imaginable breakdown and delay, proved that the "horseless carriage" really did have a future http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=1413847
Good Stuff! I love stories like that....mostly on a rainy sleeting monday when I question myself....."I would rather be......!" I see a good post for best road trips!
They had to use a boat to get from Columbia to Panama City. There was no through road then and there still isn't. It is physically impossible to cross the Darien rain forest on wheels. Al
Hey Mike... The car is a Graham-Paige. Their trip is amazing! My dad has a '29 GP 610 and I bought him that book this year. He's still reading it, but absolutely loves it. That trip they took is an inspiration. -Chris
I've been a big fan of these crazy trips... Here's one i'm especially fond of because it involves taking an amphibious Willys Jeep around the world... including floating it across the oceans. HUGE BALLS... The Jeep's name was "Half-Safe"... Here's the story: http://members.iinet.com.au/~daveb/halfsafe/halfsafe.html
I would've thought so too... but Mark A. Smith did it in a Jeep back in the 70's. I heard it was HELL to get through. Like moving inches a day at some points... Smith is by nature a person who seeks to explore the world and find adventures. He led the 1978-1979 Expedicion de las Americas, a 20,000-mile, 120-day odyssey from the bottom of South America to the top of North America, crossing the infamous Darien Gap. The Darien Gap is the section of land between Panama and Columbia where the Pan-American Highway has yet to connect through the jungle. The area is dense road-less jungle, which has only been traversed successfully by vehicle in a joint effort of the British Military and Columbian Military in 1972. Smiths group of 16 North Americans is the only organized private group to traverse the distance. Smiths group worked with the indigenous Choco and three Columbians to traverse the Gap. It took them 30 days to work their way through the jungle and by the time they had made it through the path they had cleared at the beginning of their journey had already grown over.
The military must have hauled the jeep under a Sky Crane helicopter. I worked in the Darien jungle from 1967 - '69. I don't believe it's possible to cross with the wheels on the ground. It might be possible on the beaches except for the river crossings. In 1972 it would have been 200 miles of one of the densest rain forest in the world.
In Argentina they call Speedsters "baquets" like a long, narrow loaf of bread. Here is a link to one underway. It could be the car that made the run to New York. Note the "flex" in the wheels. http://www.flickr.com/photos/elovaloazul/4015855252/
Thanks for the correction!!! I should have found the book first. Inside they list everyone that made a donation to help them on their trip. Really nice couple & so lucky to be able to say they did it!!
I read about a guy who got through the Darien gap on a motorcycle. You have to use dugouts at one point.One manufacturere tried to getvehicles through as a stunt.The vehicles are still there...rusting. Seems that a Model A would be almost ideal as it is so easy to repair. Remember the "Grapes of Wrath" where they used a strip of leather to replace the babbit (insert?) to keep going.
There was another Model T that made it from Colombia to Panama under its own power! Just not on wheels... The thing was temporrarily floated on two tanks in the general runningboard area and moved by a propeller on the enf of the driveshaft, with rear axle removed for that part of the trip. I do not remember what the whole trip involved. "Half Safe" the Ford Amphibian eventually made it all the way around the world, after a long layover to recover from the Atlantic run. I don't remember the details...think the used the Baring strait route rather than really crossing the Pacific!
OK...I'll bring a Model B pickup and a stack of jerry cans. Who's got a propellor with Ford taper hub and some 55 gallon drums for the floats?? We'll start in Alaska so the whole way will be downhilll. Required reading for all passengers: "All the Way in a Model A" from Rod abd Custom!
OT but anyway: A buddy of mine is currently riding a bicycle from NY to Argentina. He left in mid-summer this year. What's amazing is that I was in Ecuador a couple of weeks ago to do some climbing. I hired a driver to take me from Banos to Quilatoa. Guess who I saw hammering south down the Pan-Am highway... dka
YIKES!! Does your buddy plan to have children?! My crotch hurts, in a very bad way, just considering such an epic trip on a bicycle. Back in the 90s, I dreamed of making that 1997 Peking-to-Paris rally, or at least witnessing some leg of that journey. Life moves on.