Woody & My IBF

I have been repeatedly asked who Millard Newman is. This is because all our car banners read Spirit of Millard Newman Tour. Millard started these badboys. They were the Transcontinental Reliability Tours, restricted to brass cars. A brass car is pre-WWI (1914). Usually five weeks, the tours followed such routes as San Francisco to Philadelphia (for the bicentennial), Portland to Portland (Oregon to Maine), Key West to Halifax and eventually New York to New York via Great Britain on the QEII. Millard and his wife Maggie always drove Putt-Putt, a bright red 1911 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost with copious amounts of brass. Millard was known for his sporting leather aviator helmet worn by early motorists and occasional dust coat. In those days, the fifty cars that traveled we of all varieties, including Turcat-Mery, Thomas Flyer, Ford, Locomobile, Peugot, Pierce Arrow,Winton and so on. There was a point system. You received a perfect score if you made the checkpoint for the day. In theory this is easy. There is plenty of time to make it, even in old cars. However, there is a reason for the Reliability part of Reliability Tour. It was not a question of if there were going to be problems, but when. You were penalized for every 100 ft. you were pushed, pulled or towed. There were many, many penalties. The whole idea of reliability was to see if you could make your car go, and if  not fix it yourself. Tourists were very helpful toward each other given that it often took more than one hand and more than one head to figure out the solution. There was much meeting of the locals, particularly in tire stores, machine shops, forges (yes, forges) and so on.

I began Transcons in 1978 on Key West to Halifax. We drove a 1904 Mercedes, the oldest in the group. You got points for every year older than 1914 your car was. The Mercedes was chain-driven and you got a lap full of motor oil if you sat in the front seat. We broke down many times. My sister was massively burned on the exhaust system during the parade in Disney World. She still has the scars. We did not finish. In those days, many cars did not finish. They were towed home. In another Tour, we we running downhill at a 10 percent grade or something when the brass gearshift lever broke clean off. Compression brakes are not reliable. At all. They were never meant to be. You downshifted to go at an appropriate rate downhill. We had just passed the truck run off area. A truck run off area is a flat spot with gravel on the bottom that slows and hopefully stops the truck, or in our case, the car. It would have been helpful. At the bottom of the red sand hill was a stop sign at a tee. It was a good thing that across the intersection was a salt lake. Dry.

A few Tours, we had a pack of teenagers running wild. I have fond memories of Pat O'Briens in New Orleans, drinking underage. Loaning my hotel room to a young couple. Buying a blender at a K-Mart along the way when we hijacked a Thomas Flyer. Jumping into ponds from huge cliffs. Young love that lasted several tours and burned out as we became young adults. The guy who drove the entire thing on a learner's permit. He turned sixteen on that tour. I still have the picture of him in front of the burning candles on his cake. As time went on and we all had our own lives, the tours became older. And everyone figured out that Rolls Royces were the most reliable and thus the fun was taken out of the deal. Everyone is over 60 now (except me and one couple with teenaged children), and most over 70. Maggie Newman continues to drive Putt-Putt on her own. This year, the Transcontinental has been revived, but the Reliability has been removed.

A brief word about Millard. The late Mr. Newman was a Tampa-based cigar manufacturer and antique car hauler. I'm not sure about the cigars. I know absolutely nothing else about him except his enthusiasm, big smiles and occasional crotchityness.
Looked it up. Here's stuff about Millard. Also the list of Transcons.