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By Gene Cogorno . . . an article with photographs appearing in the November-December, 2010 issue of MARC's Model "A" News.
The night before touring class judging in Dallas, I went out to look at our car one last time. I climbed underneath, dried off a hint of oil from the oil drain plug and transmission case and did a final "wipe down" of the car. I had prepared as best as I could for the combined MARC/MAFCA judging team.
Judging day came, with the participation of all entrants in the touring class. Scores were announced the next day. Our fixed "wrecked car" earned its first MARC Touring Class Award of Excellence Medallion with 495 points! The "missing" 5 points were deducted for not having a proper Ford script battery. Although 500 points were possible, 495 certainly did not sound bad, especially since the top touring class car of the joint meet scored 497. All the detailing efforts and long hours in the garage had paid off! Special thanks go to Terry Oberer for encouraging me and helping me to get the car back to "show condition" after it came back from the auto body shop.
Merrillville was the location for the next National MARC meet and only a 320 mile drive from St. Louis. I decided to show the car again in the Touring Class. Because the lion's share of the detailing had been done the year before, it didn't take too much additional work to get the car ready to compete again. A Ford script battery was installed, the 3X Champion spark plugs came out again for cleaning and detailing, and the Touring Class Judging Standards were carefully reviewed once again to see which areas needed a little attention. To my surprise, at the end of the touring class judging day, Larry Wilcrout (Touring Class Chairman) announced to everyone that several cars had scored the maximum possible 500 points. I was delighted to find out that our sedan was one of 6 cars to earn the "perfect score" of 500 points! The Merrillville meet and Tommy Gun's Roaring 20s Review also provided me the opportunity to play "Groucho Marx" at the Welcome Social. This fact wasn't forgotten when the Preservation Award Medallion was presented to "Groucho" for showing our sedan in the touring class again and scoring well. The French Lick MARC National Meet was next, and one that we did not want to miss. We drove our Model "A" the 260 miles from St. Louis to French Lick, IN. in about 7 hours. The desire to show the car again in the touring class was still with me. The touring class judging is a great event! You have the opportunity to see some really nice cars up close and you always meet some exceptionally neat people. Fifty seven cars registered for the touring class judging, although there were several cars that didn't show. Judging was once again a great camaraderie building team experience. At the end of the day, Larry Wilcrout announced that there were several cars that had scored 500 points. At Cedar Farm, the scores of the touring class cars were announced. Once again, our sedan earned 500 points and qualified for an additional year Preservation Award. "Pretty sweet", I thought. Our touring class sedan still showed well for a third year in a row!
It's great to get the recognition that comes with scoring well in the touring class for Model "A's". For us however, the most fun is getting out and driving the Model "A" as Henry Ford had intended. We've logged 21,630 driving miles since our original restoration. We've driven around the Indianapolis racetrack at 2 separate MARC meets as well as the Texas Motor Speedway. We have met some of our best friends in the Model "A" groups. Our lives have been enriched more than we could have ever imagined by sharing special moments with the people who restore, show and tour with their "old cars". We are greatly looking forward to many more shared Model "A" adventures in the years to come. One final note: We have added seat belts in the front and rear of our sedan, installed a passenger side tail light, added an LED third brake light, and added turn signals to the car and several reflective strips to our trunk. We're driving a little more cautious now. Thanks to all of you in the Model "A" Restorers Club for your friendship, support and good times. We are very grateful to be back "on the road again" with our Model "A".
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Another pretty good website by Grant MacLaren 
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