A Slow Drive Across a Fast Country (Tom Cotter)

Automotive History Live welcomes Barn Find Hunter and author Tom Cotter, who recounts driving a restored 1926 Ford Model T from Times Square to San Francisco largely along the Lincoln Highway, inspired by concerns that modern cars remove the act of driving. With co-driver Dave Coleman and photographer Michael Allen Ross, Cotter describes day-one challenges like no gas gauge, cold weather, and staying in period roadside lodgings, plus human-interest stops including the Flight 93 Memorial, quirky diners, historic Lincoln Highway sites, and encounters with local enthusiasts. The trip highlights evolving road routes, a brief, tense stretch on Wyoming’s I-80 among fast trucks, a visit to Bonneville’s wet salt flats where they helped tow out a stuck car, and Nevada’s “loneliest road.” They reached the western terminus, baptized the tires in the Pacific, and shipped the car home with sponsor help.

===== (Oo---x---oO) ===== 00:00 Welcome Tom Cotter 01:05 Why a Model T? 03:09 Lincoln Highway Origins 03:58 Times Square Sendoff, A Hudson River Baptism 07:04 Day One Road Lessons 10:58 Flight 93 Memorial 13:02 Teapot and Speed Trap 14:19 Early Auto History Ohio 15:32 Studebaker Museum Visit 16:26 VW Camper Night 17:38 Police Escort Out of South Bend 18:41 Unpaved Lincoln Highway 20:52 Iowa and American Pickers 23:31 Reed Nyland Corner 24:48 Boone Tractor Treasure 27:40 Speedy Bill Museum 28:37 McPherson College Tune Up 31:11 Wyoming Interstate Gauntlet 34:02 Bonneville Salt Rescue 37:29 Highway 50 Ghost Towns 38:48 Silver State Surprise 40:18 California Or Bust! 40:56 Donner Pass Hospitality 42:27 Golden Gate Finish 43:10 Audience Q & A, Sponsors And Credits

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This episode is part of our AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY LIVE! SERIES and is sponsored in part by: The Studebaker National Museum and The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH) and was recorded in front of a live studio audience.