Yosemite Reservations

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

DATE WITH A MODEL: ANTIQUE CARS LET IN YOSEMITE’S BEAUTY
Guy Keeler
Fresno Bee
25 August 2007
Every day is the Roaring `20s at the Tin Lizzie Inn, where the garage is full of Model T and Model A Fords and David Woodworth will teach you to drive them.
Woodworth and his wife, Sheran, who opened their bed-and-breakfast in June, also rent antique cars for people to drive into Yosemite National Park.
Model T Tours operates like a regular car rental company. If you’re 21 and have a valid driver’s license and auto insurance, you can rent a Model T or Model A. Rates are $250 for a half-day and $400 for a full day.
The old cars, all restored originals dating from the teens and 1920s, are well suited for area trails because of their high ground clearance. And since all are either roadsters or touring cars with open tops, they also are perfect for viewing Yosemite’s imposing granite walls, which often are blocked by the roofs of modern cars.
“It was a fantastic experience,” says Paul Arlin of Covina, Calif., who rented a 1929 Model A a few weeks ago for a trip to Yosemite Valley with his wife, Tammar. “I’ve spent a lot of time in national parks behind the wheel of a car, but the Model A gives it a completely different flavor. You feel like you’re stepping back in time and you can relax and enjoy the scenery.”
Drivers and passengers in the old cars also become part of the scenery when they venture onto the highway.
“People would honk and wave at us but they were very courteous,” Arlin says. “When we stopped, they would come up and ask questions.”
Britt Anderson of Los Gatos, Calif., had a similar experience on a recent trip to Glacier Point and back in a 1928 Model A with his wife, Karyn, and sons Braden, 13, and Justin, 16.
“It’s surprising how far technology in cars has come,” he says. “It was a real eye-opener to drive one of these old cars. They’re low-powered and you have to work with them going uphill. I was surprised at the number of people who wanted to have their pictures taken with the car.”
More than 15 million Model T Fords were built between 1908 and 1927, when the Model A came out, and David Woodworth says the sturdy little workhorse is one of the most significant cars ever built.
“The Model T opened up the world to people,” he says. “Before then, most lived and died within 50 miles of the place of their birth.”
By producing a car the masses could afford, Henry Ford put the horse and buggy out to pasture and created a wanderlust limited only by road conditions and the amount of gas in a car’s tank.
Woodworth says driving a Model T or Model A gives people a chance to experience a slice of early motoring history.
“And after you’ve rented one, you’ll probably love your current car even more,” he says with a chuckle.
Driving a Model T is a bit tricky. There is no gear shifter and no gas pedal. The accelerator is attached to the steering column like a modern turn signal lever and the gears are activated by foot pedals.
“You drive the car with your feet,” Woodworth says.
The Model T has two forward gears and three pedals. Push the pedal on the left to the floor and you move forward in low. Let it up all the way and you’re in high.
Pushing the middle pedal to the floor puts the car in reverse, but only if you’ve got the left pedal in neutral, halfway to the floor. By the way, if you need to stop, the brake pedal is on the far right. Hope you’ve got enough feet.
“When in doubt, push everything,” Woodworth quips.
Actually, driving a Model T is much easier than it sounds. Most people quickly get the hang of it after taking lessons from Woodworth in the parking lot at the nearby Tenaya Lodge.
“We’ve been renting cars since 1999 and I’ve only had three people who didn’t feel comfortable driving one,” he says.
John Puffer of Wilbraham, Mass., drove both a Model T and a Model A during a July visit to Yosemite.
“I had a great time,” he says. “Unlike modern cars, with the Model T you’ve got to be thinking all the time about what your feet are doing. The hardest part was putting it in reverse. I stalled it out more than once.”
The Model A has a three-speed transmission with a floor shifter and clutch that is less confusing to operate. But drivers who are used to revving up their engines before shifting gears may have some trouble getting used to how the Model A moves from low to high at much lower speeds.
The top speed limit in Yosemite is 45 mph, and many sections are posted for 35 mph or less. Woodworth says top speed for a Model T is around 30-35 mph, while a Model A can reach 50 mph.
Woodworth, a retired Baptist minister and real estate investor, got interested in old cars while collecting tent trailers and motor homes dating from the teens, 1920s and `30s. He thought it would be a good idea to own an antique car to pull his old trailers and bought a 1928 Model A 40 years ago.
The trailer and motor home collection, which Woodworth recently sold to the Recreational Vehicle and Manufactured Housing Hall of Fame and Museum in Elkhart, Ind., led to a job as national historian for the recreational vehicle industry. For the past 16 years, Woodworth has traveled around the country, doing media interviews and making public appearances to talk about RV history.
Woodworth has made six cross-country trips in his Model A, and one year, while passing through Lancaster, Pa., he became fascinated by the Amish buggies he saw on the road. He thought motorists might have the same fascination with Model T cars, and decided renting them would be a good hobby business for someone who loves history and nostalgia as much as he does.
The Woodworths designed and built the Tin Lizzie Inn with the cars in mind. There is room for eight in the ground-floor garage. Woodworth owns 10 - eight Model T’s and two Model A’s - and hopes to add two more Model A’s to round out his fleet.
Woodworth does most of the maintenance himself, and recently put a new engine and radiator in his 1928 Model A. Several companies make replacement parts for the old cars, which makes it easier to keep them running.
“You’re always adjusting things,” Woodworth says. “You’re lubing and tightening up nuts and bolts.”
While drivers are on their own once they leave the Tin Lizzie Inn, Woodworth provides them with satellite phones they can use if the cars develop mechanical problems.
“One time, an ignition wire came loose and a car wouldn’t start,” he says. “Another time, a guy ran out of gas. The Model T has no gas gauge. You can get about 150 miles to a tank of gas, which is usually plenty for a trip to Yosemite. But this guy drove all over. He was coming home and going up a hill about five miles from here when the engine quit.”
Woodworth says Model T’s with less-than-full tanks were notorious for getting starved for gas on uphill climbs.
Depending on the slope, he says, Model T drivers used to call steep grades either “seven-gallon” or “five-gallon” hills, referring to the amount of fuel needed in the tank to maintain adequate gas flow to the engine.
Woodworth installed electric fuel pumps to reduce the fuel pressure problems in his cars. He also added distributors and different brakes, but has kept everything else in line with original equipment to make the driving experience as authentic as possible.
“Renting one of these cars gives people a chance to build memories in a unique way,” he says. “How many people can say ‘I’ve driven a real Model T’?”