Austin 7 - Five Baby Austins Conquer Route 66
| This September five vintage Austin Sevens
drove the famous Route 66 from Chicago to Los
Angeles . They commenced their epic journey
on Saturday the 2nd of September and arrived
at Santa Monica on the 21st of September. The
crews were all members of the 750 Motor Club. |
|
The cars arrived in New York by sea and the crews by air on the 23rd of August. Since it wasn’t possible to ship the cars to Chicago , the cars had to be driven nearly 1000 miles, to that city for the start of the legendary road. Hence the intrepid crews have, in effect, done USA - Coast to Coast.
There
was a modern car in support. The drivers were
Veronica Garside
and her, US domiciled, daughter
who had originally proposed the trip in memory
of their late husband and father, Ron, who had
hoped to travel Route 66. Driving duties were also
shared with Diana’s boy friend, River Dukes
and Veronica’s friend, Wendy Hider. Diana
also shared the driving of Vince Leek’s chummy
and River helped immensely with navigation and
US/English translation! The couple also kept a
website filled with up to date news and pictures
of the trip which was appreciated by friends and
families at home. http://www.a7route66.typepad.com/
All the Austin 7s and crews have travelled extensively
in Europe and 3 of them completed a 3,500 mile
journey from Buenos Aires , across the Andes,
to Santiago , Chile and back in Feb 2005. The
cars date from 1930 to 1938 and are the type
of car on which the ‘American Austin’ and ‘Bantam’ cars
were based. Jack Rittenhouse did the journey
in a 1939 Bantam in 1946 and wrote about it in
his book, “A Guide Book to Highway 66”,
which was another inspiration for the trip – 60
years on. We can at least claim to be the first
English Austin Sevens to have done the whole
of route 66.
All the crews had a fantastic time and enjoyed the drive, the sites and the
friendly and interesting people they met on the way. Several people came
along with their British cars to meet us at our overnight stops. It was heart
warming to see such enthusiasm for cars from our home country. On the first
day on Route 66 we were met by the president of Ill Route 66 Assn., John
and Lenore Weiss, in Bloomington . Later in the day the convoy was invited
to take part in a little bit of local culture by joining the annual ’Thresherman’s
Parade’ in Pontiac , Illinois , and generously given lunch in the town.
The late arrival in Springfield , Illinois , was greeted by applause from a small group of British car fans and about 20 Harley Davidson owners. In Joplin we were met, to the sounds of “Rule Britania” from his public address, by Ron Hart and guided us the last 15 miles into the town for interviews with a TV reporter. This was followed by lunch at the famous Eisler Brother’s store. Owner, Scott Nelson, gave us his rendering of “Get your Kicks on Route 66” as we ate. Fran Eikoff of the R66 Assn. of Mo, took us from our 2nd night, quaint, ‘Wagon Wheel Motel’ to a meal at the Country Kitchen at Cuba - the city of painted Murals. At Claremore , OK , the Classic Ford V8 club from Tulsa turned out in strength with no less than 8 lovely cars to meet us at our hotel. There were a number of ‘dirt road’ sections of 2 to 20 miles in the next few days. The famous Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari was a particularly popular stop. Their owners were most pleasant and helpful – even taking us to a restaurant for breakfast in their 60’s Chevvy and presenting us with pictures of the cars in front of the hotel before we left!
The drive, on the pre-30 route 66 alignment, to Santa Fe found us taking shelter in a gas station when the heavens opened for the first time since we left Chicago . The hail stones left the road covered with what looked like snow as we proceeded on our way. Traffic on the parallel interstate had been halted when a car had slid off on the hazardous surface! Another group of British car enthusiasts met us in Albuquerque and guarded our cars while we had lunch. A representative of the local Chamber of Commerce took us to the local ‘Uranium’ restaurant in Grants and treated us to a superb meal on the evening of our arrival in that friendly little town.
On the next leg the whole convoy was brought to a halt when the lead car spotted a large spider crossing the road! Another photo opportunity!! Another stop at the Arizona border where there were a number of Navajo Indian trading posts. Fortunately for our pockets, most of them were closed. A long dirt road through the Querino Canyon followed. Then another heavy rain shower had us ‘holding’ before launching ourselves onto the Interstate to pick up the next length of R66. Soon after that we took a 28 mile detour to see the ‘Painted Desert’ and ‘ Petrified Forest ’ which meant not arriving at our ‘Wig Wam Motel’ till Dusk.
The drive to Williams entailed several more sections of dirt road. A cold start and heavy side winds made it a little unpleasant. A small crowd near the hotel gave us a round of applause on arrival! Another ‘free day’ allowed time for a trip on the Grand Canyon railway to this world famous site. While we were ‘away’ the cars were on show at the excellent Pete’s Gas Station Museum.
A cold night left a light coating of frost on the
one saloon car among us! This after we had been
warned of the extreme heat in the west!! A stop
at fascinating Seligman saw us dally a little
and meet the famous Angel Delgadillo who has
done so much to promote the re emergence of Route
66 as a historic road.
At Las Vegas , we were joined by Lynn and Jan James with Lynn ’s 1930 American Austin on the most interesting drive of the route – over the, steep and winding, 2550 feet, Sitgreaves Pass to the quaint old mining town of Oatman . An early start was deemed necessary to avoid the worst of the heat of the Mojave Desert . In the event, the first 40 miles or so was quite cold and the heavy side winds kept the later heat down to a bearable level.
At Barstow we were joined by Jim Johnson, President
of the Austin Bantam Society,
who had ‘Welcome Austin 7 Club of England’ emblazoned on the back
of his pick-up truck. An early start (7am) was made for the final run in to Santa
Monica since we had been invited to the Pasadena home of Norm Booth, secretary
of the Austin Bantam Society, for a welcome buffet lunch. 750 M.C. Vice President,
Ken Cooke, presented Norm with a challenge shield for the use of the ABS. MG
owners, Gene Olson and Steve Simmons joined us here and led us for the last 40
miles – although they did allow the Sevens to lead the convoy onto the
Santa Monica Pier – the western end of Route 66.
The feelings among the travellers was a mixed one – elation at the successful
completion of a fabulous journey but sadness that it was all over! The little
cars had completed around 4000 miles in all with nothing more than a dynamo fault,
dislocated throttle and choke linkage, a couple of blown fuses, 2 worn tyres
and one car was troubled by a transmission vibration.
The participants were as follows;
- Richard and Marlies Bishop from Exeter , Devon in a 1938 sports.
- Ken and Eileen Cooke from Hertfordshire in a 1930 4 seater tourer.
- Vince Leek from Warminster and Diana Garside from Nth Carolina in a 1929 tourer.
- George and Joy Mooney from Bournemouth , Hants. In a 1934 Cambridge special.
- Stan Price from Carlisle and Chris Parkhurst from Aylesbury in a 1932 ‘box’ saloon.
- Veronica Garside, Wendy Hider from Swindon Wilts, and River Dukes from Nth
- Carolina in a support car.
Post
script.
Bantam – built under licence from the British
Austin Motor Co. We were met and looked after by
the Vice President of the Austin Bantam Society,
Bob Brandon and some of his friends. This included
a superb Buffet at his house on the outskirts of
the city. The 950 mile drive from New York to Chicago
was broken by a ‘free day’ in Butler
PA. the home of the American Austin in 1930.
Yet more hospitality and guidance was given by enthusiasts during the 6 days the crews spent in the Los Angeles area. Jim Johnson, President of the American Austin Society and Katie showed us their superb collection of cars including two British Austin 7s, about 10 American Austin/Bantams and a dozen or so Classic Americans. They too provided a lovely buffet lunch for the party.
Finally the group would like to thank everyone we met in the US who were so friendly, helpful and, on the road, so tolerant of our relatively slow progress. This will be an abiding memory of our fantastic trip. As R66 writer, Michael Wallis, says “It’s not just the road, it’s not just the sites, but it’s the people that make Route 66 so special”.
By Ken Cooke
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