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Studebakers on the 2016 Glidden Tour

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  • Studebakers on the 2016 Glidden Tour

    My wife Jane and I just got back from the 2016 AAA Revival Glidden Tour, sponsored by AAA, the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) and The Veteran Motor Car Club of America (VMCCA). The tour was based at a hotel in N. Conway, NH, had 174 cars and about 380 people participating. It was my first AACA/VMCCA tour. The oldest cars were a 1909 Chalmers, a 1910 Hudson, and a 1911 Kissel, and the newest allowable cars were from 1942. Among the cars were seven Studebakers from 1922, 1928, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940, and 1941. I drove my 1965 Wagonaire to the meet, but it was too "new" to be on the tour itself. We rode with Jerry Kurtz in his 1937 Dictator all week.

    Each morning, we left the hotel at 7:30-8:00 and drove about 100 miles, looping through New Hampshire and Maine countryside and mountains, returning about 4:00 pm. Sometimes the pace was set by the slowest cars, but even the old Chalmers and Kissel completed 400 miles or more without incident. One Ford Model A did get rear-ended at a stop light by some idiot in a modern car; the Model A driver was OK, though his wife had a bit of a whiplash injury - they continued on the tour the next day as passengers with other drivers. Some of us even climbed the Mt. Washington Auto Road, the highest peak in the northeast at 6288 ft. Starting at the 1500 ft elevation of the base, the narrow (mostly) paved road winds up the mountain on a 12% grade. This is a steeper climb than the Pike's Peak road. There are no guard rails, and there are many places that if you go off the edge of the road, it's all over! Even on the uphill side, there is a deep ditch. My Wagonaire made the climb - and the steep descent with the disk brakes very hot - as well as Jerry Kurtz's 1937 Dictator and Dave Thibeault's 1934 Plymouth coupe (his only car old enough to qualify for the tour). I will freely admit that this was a very white-knuckle drive for me both up and down the mountain. We had planned to go on Sunday at the beginning of the week, but the wind was 90-100 mph and the temperature about 40 °F at the top with rain and fog, visibility less than 1/8 mile. Our trip on Tuesday afternoon found 50 °F temperatures, 20-30 mph winds, and 100 mile visibility, almost pleasant. Record winds in 1934 were 231 mph at the top. Jerry, Dave, and I got our "This car climbed Mt. Washington" bumper stickers.

    At other times on the tours, we passed cars from the Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) tour going in the opposite direction. The CCCA had lots of classic Packards, Auburns, Chryslers, Cadillacs, and other high-end cars on their tour. There were several other clubs touring the region, so we saw lots of old cars all week. Other high points included a boat ride on Lake Winnipesauke, lunch at the Mt. Washington Hotel, a tour of Bob Bahre's fantastic car collection in Paris Hill, ME, and a train ride through the Mt. Washington valley.

    In addition to meeting lots of new friends, we saw Studebaker drivers Malcolm Stinson and his sister Millie Silver, Rex and Pam Miltenberger, Ed and Wenda Wenger, Audrey and Engel Bouwmeester (from Kamloops, B.C.), Nancy and Chester Bradfield, Nyal and Pat Weaver, Kent Haberle, and others. I put about 500 miles on my Wagonaire to get to the meet and back, plus local driving and got another 400-500 miles in Jerry's '37 Dictator. As it all started for us on Sept. 10, that was a pretty good International Drive Your Studebaker Day and week. We recommend the Glidden Tour to those interested in driving and riding in pre-WWII vehicles.

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    Gary Ash
    Dartmouth, Mass.

    '32 Indy car replica (in progress)
    ’41 Commander Land Cruiser
    '48 M5
    '65 Wagonaire Commander
    '63 Wagonaire Standard
    web site at http://www.studegarage.com

  • #2
    That sounds like you had a lot of fun. Sorry you could not drive your 65....there is always next time, maybe.

    Mark

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    • #3
      Wow, fantastic report. I'm glad you had such a great time.
      Mark L

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      • #4
        Thanks for the great write-up. Appears you had an excellent time!

        Craig

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        • #5
          Glidden tour

          We also made it to the top of Mount Washington in our 1941 commander. ASC president Kent Haberle with my wife Pam at the top.
          Attached Files

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          • #6
            Originally posted by studerex View Post
            We also made it to the top of Mount Washington in our 1941 commander. ASC president Kent Haberle with my wife Pam at the top.
            That's great Rex. Please say hello to Nyal and Pat Weaver for me, as well as Kent.

            Stu Chapman

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            • #7
              Glidden tour

              Photos of other ASC members on the tour.
              Attached Files

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              • #8
                Great to see folks actually driving their cars somewhere other than to the meet and back. And what great looking cars! Thanks for the report and glad you made it Up and Down safely!
                Nick

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                • #9
                  Beautiful country as well! Some years (decades) ago I spent a week backpacking the Presidentials. The hike to the top of Mount Washington is much less strenuous when you start from the top of Mount Monroe.
                  Brad Johnson,
                  SDC since 1975, ASC since 1990
                  Pine Grove Mills, Pa.
                  '33 Rockne 10, '51 Commander Starlight. '53 Commander Starlight
                  '56 Sky Hawk in process

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                  • #10
                    Thanks for the post Gary. Looks like a great time. The list of participants is right there on the first page of "Who's who" in the ASC. Tom

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                    • #11
                      A little more than 30 years ago my wife, baby daughter and I went up to the top of Mt. Washington in our Volvo 240 wagon. The car was an old rust bucket, but it ran good and had four wheel disc brakes. My wife was horrified all the up. She was sitting on the right side of the car and looked straight down the mountainside like Gary was saying. Once up there we were all fine. It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies that the locals said don't happen often up on top of the mountain. On the way back down the wife was better as she could look at the side of the mountain rather than over the edge. The one thing that made me proud of that old beat up Volvo was the brakes. While many of the big American cars pulled over to let their brakes recover (there were cut outs just for that), the Volvo never suffered brake fade. They continued to be good all the way down the mountain.

                      All that said I cannot imagine prewar cars climbing and descending Mt. Washington. It must have been a blast to be involved in such an event.
                      Joe Roberts
                      '61 R1 Champ
                      '65 Cruiser
                      Eastern North Carolina Chapter

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by JRoberts View Post
                        I cannot imagine prewar cars climbing and descending Mt. Washington. It must have been a blast to be involved in such an event.
                        Hence the invention of down-shifting!
                        Brad Johnson,
                        SDC since 1975, ASC since 1990
                        Pine Grove Mills, Pa.
                        '33 Rockne 10, '51 Commander Starlight. '53 Commander Starlight
                        '56 Sky Hawk in process

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          This was my 5th Glidden tour along with several Founders and Sentimental tours. There is a AACA tour for most any year of vintage cars. The Glidden is for pre WW2 cars and they are a lot of fun and you visit many interesting places. The three of us that drove up Mt Washington each had different issues. My 37 had some heating issues going up, Gary car is an automatic so he had some overheated brakes and Dave had major engine smoke going down. I put the 37 in low gear and hardly used the brakes, once at the bottom everything went back to normal on all three cars. On several of these tours there are often as many Studebakers as there are chevys, the vast majority of the cars are Ford model A's. One interested lady that rode with us was Alice, she was probably 75-80 and drove an "A" from NY city by herself. If you ever get the opportunity to drive or ride on one of these tours, don't pass it up, great vacation, great friends, great cars at a very reasonable price.
                          Jerry Kurtz

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                          • #14
                            Very nice write-up and photos. Looks like it was a great time! Thanks for sharing.
                            Mike - Assistant Editor, Turning Wheels
                            Fort Worth, TX

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