3 days 21 hours 33 minutes until the start of the funnest thing you can do in a Model T Ford. We had a 5 person crew working till midnight last night. All to help out Jamie Allen get a top on his car for before we leave. Jamie broke his left arm in a four wheeler accident. So we got her done for him.
Good luck Jamie.
That car came from John Steele from Rust, Montana a couple years ago. It is a great transformation into a 500 racer. I'm not sure if they rebuilt the engine that was in it or not but I think they did. Some of you may remember the touring that was on Tbay with a Ruckstell and Buffalo 30 x 3 1/2 wire wheels a few years ago. This is it!! John and I flipped a coin as to which one of us was going to buy it and his coin was bigger than mine. Luckier, too. Another one saved. John has the wheels and the Ruckstell, Jamie has a car, the 500 has another racer. T life is good!!
Disclaimer: The reason I am in here fooling around on the computer at noon on a work day is that I went to the chiropractor again this morning and he told me to sit down and give my back a rest every hour for a day or two.
We are planning on going Wednesday. John thinks a 200 mile day is going to be a little long for the DeTour DeLuxe and he and I are both going to be gone until Sunday or Monday. I'm going to an auction to buy more junk and he's fishing for Walleye and whatever else at Fort Peck.
Today, I'm working and he's fishing.
By the way, Jamie, I'm sorry to hear about your broken arm. Should have said that in the first post. See you next week.
Stan- That car had all the tell tale signs of a Ruckstell and wire wheels when Jamie bought it. I would of high-graded those things too. It sure woulda sweetened the deal! We did use the engine that came with it. Jamie has paid homage to "Mickey" the mouse that pulled the entire seat padding into the crank case to build a nest. Jamie poured 4 quarts of oil into the engine to get it running first thing. When we went to drain the engine after we got it running no oil, None poured out. All of it soaked into the padding! We pulled the lower pan and that was the most disgusting foul smelling mess I have ever cleaned! Aww Memories!
I heard about the mice mess. The car was stored in a barn for years. What was the shame of the deal was that it had a virtually new set of Wards Riverside 30 x 3 1/2 tires on it that were ruined from setting flat. It was a nice body but John would have never bought it for anywhere's near what he paid for it without the 5 wire wheels. I'm glad it's back on the road.
That mouse was building an internal oil filter for you.
Good luck with the touring car Jamie. I hope you have a great run. Has a touring car ever won the event ?. Please post the results and pictures on the forum as soon as you can. It is on my list to come over and do the 500 one day. One of my good mates is very keen to come over for an Aussie assault on the prize. Anybody got a car? Maybe we can lease one like a NASCAR type deal?. How many entries this year Mike?
Garrett Green won in a touring car. I've had several people drive my extra T's. Even had them beat me with them.
Disgusting! But funny! and sad at the same time. I hope the mouse left before you started the engine?
Thank you. It has been a rough couple of days, I needed a good laugh.
Good luck on the run!
I think I have officially begun collecting parts to maybe put together a qualifiable T? Most of my running Ts in the past have been speedsters, and my coupe has too many era accessories.
To all the 500 attendees,
Drive carefully, and have fun! W2
The Montana 500 doesn't have preregistration, so an exact head count is impossible until Monday morning. I have heard from 17 car drivers that said they will be there going for "2012 Montana 500 winner".
I had a 7:30 T time. Just a couple more things to wrap up on my T before I head out.
Over the years the average number of drivers is close to 20/year. Usually someone shows up out of the woodwork.
I'm ready to go........ I think.
Tom - I can say for sure that your T Roadster will run 50 mph so easy it's scary - on the flat.
Tom, nothing would give me greater pleasure than participating in the 500 in one of your 'spare cars'. good luck with your car this year. I enjoyed following your build on the forum last year in preperation for the event. Hopefully you have no electrical gremlins this year and have a successful run.
Warwick, that was two years ago! This will be my third run with my "new" car. My how time flies!
On a side note, my brother called yesterday evening and informed me that he had blown up his Montana 500 car. We pulled an all-nighter and got it fixed, so off to Montana we go!
Wow Tom, how embarrasing! A year of my life and a Montana 500 remain unaccounted for! I have a plan in place for next year. Hopefully the 500 and the MTFCA National tour are close enough in dates so I can attend them both. Maybe leave the wife in a big USA city for shopping so I can come race! good luck and safe and reliable racing to all.Once again,dont forget to post pictures and results from that beautiful Montana countryside. Warwick.
Tom:
I wish you good luck and a safe Montana 500 this year! Is your sister going to compete against you this year?
Arnie
Thanks Arnie, Yes, Nan will be driving Tweety Bird this year. There are 18 trophy cars and 11 touring cars this year. The farthest competitor is from Austin, TX.
Tom has had some problems with updating the 500 page. The final results for the 2012 Montana 500 are.
1) Tom Carnegie
2) Mike Stormo
3) Jillian Robison
Tom tied Bud Peters for most overall wins with 5.
Congratulations to all the drivers of the run. We crossed the continental divide 6 times and battled 30-40 Mph winds. After day one the weather couldn't have been better.
The driver that came the furthest came from Austin, TX.
Congratulations Tom! What do you think about the strong performances by Stormo and Jillian? Back to back top three finishes for Jillian! Her time is coming
Way to go Tom!
Here is a link to the MT Standard newspaper
http://mtstandard.com/news/local/tagging-the-ts/article_6134ef4e-ba8e-11e1-a480- 001a4bcf887a.html
Enjoy
Thanks for posting the link Mike. Interesting read.
link to the News Broadcast.
http://www.kxlf.com/videoplayer/?video_id=13776&categories=244
Story starts @ 2:40 mark
Thanks a Lot MIKE!!!
A thousand or so pictures of the 2012 Montana 500.
http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t294/modeltbabe/2012%20Montana%20500/
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jul/06/motoring-montana/
News article about Tom.
Mike, Thanks. It's a very nice article about Tom and the race that most of us would have not seen without your post.
Congrats to Tom and I am sure all involved had a lot of fun. Good weather this year? Mike, thanks for the interesting links. Any action videos?
Tom, in the above photo, is that a victory dance? Anyone get a video of that?
No, I was just standing there and somebody yelled something like "do something!", so I did something and somebody took a picture and now it's on the internet with my fat belly and tighty-whities showing.
That's great! Loved the newscast. Looks like a really good time...someday my T too, will be "race" ready and there for the Montana 500. Great show guys.