[David in San Antonio]

My 31 Roadster was in the prior owner's family for 65 years. The proverbial barn find in West Virginia, it had been used to deliver mail in the hills and hollers in Appalachia. The man who sold it to me was a teenager in 1957 when he and his father completely disassembled it and restored it to stock specifications. He said it was his job to dip each piece in a lye bath then scrub it with a wire brush. After some long period they figured out the lye wasn't helping anything so they dropped that step. Makes me really appreciate the amount of persistence and dogged effort in those pre-internet days. Anyway, in 1959 they drove it from Pittsburgh to Dearborn for the MARC meeting, where it won top honors. It was passed from one family member to another for 65 years.

As for my son, well he is pretty scornful of the A because it pollutes. He lusts after a Bugatti Veyron or "at least a Maybach" and I wish him best of luck in that pursuit.