[barnstuf]

It was late September 1950 and my wife and I were out for a Sunday pleasure ride in my 1929 station wagon equipped with oversize wheels and big tires for driving on the sandy beaches of Cape Cod. I pulled into a beach front parking lot which was defined by cement posts on three sides, and as it was off season for tourists the parking lot was almost empty. I put on the brakes as I approached the end of the parking area. Pedal went to the floor with zero resistance. My emergency brake was ineffective It was too late to swerve so I picked the two cement posts with the largest gap between them and we through the gap, dropping straight down about 15 feet onto the sandy beach. The motor was still running so we drove on the beach a bit and suddenly the engine stopped. I opened the hood and immediately saw the condenser had melted. I had struck a piece of driftwood on the beach as we landed and it had been pushed up and dislodged the lower radiator hose. The radiator had emptied in a flash, and the heat of the engine had melted the condenser. The station wagon did not have engine side pans which could have prevented the disaster. I was in the tidal plane and high tide would be a few feet deep in the area we were stranded in. Fortunately I hitch hiked 4 miles home, called my sister at her home and she came over and drove me back to the beach with water and condenser. With a new condenser and a good drink of water the station wagon started right up and by driving down the beach about a mile we were able to exit the beach and drive home.

I sold the station wagon in 1958 when the Cape Cod Seashore (National Park) banned beach driving. It is now a restored collector car owned by a friend in Vermont. The cause of the brake failure was the clevis pin at the base of the brake pedal was missing, either fell off or broke off. In almost 80 years of highway driving Model A's, around 300,000 miles, have never had a highway safety problem.