SUNDAY DRIVE
Tin Lizzy 1911
T
hey made tens of millions of Tin Lizzies – 10,000 cars a day at their peak – but every time I drive this beautiful contraption, I feel like I’m the only person in the world. Part of it is they are now few and far between – this one lives at the Nelson Classic Car Museum, coming out on rare occasions – but part of it is that the driving experience is so strange. Forward and reverse gears are selected with your feet, and the handbrake lever is used to get you into second (which is top) gear. There isn’t even an accelerator pedal; instead, you swing levers on the steering wheel to control your speed and other things that computers do for you in modern cars. 111 years old, restored by a man called Tiger, painted in a chook shed, still sporting the original leather seats, and dicing it up with modern traffic. That’s pretty special in my book.
FORD MODEL T OWNED BY THE NELSON CLASSIC CAR MUSEUM DRIVEN BY Mike Wilson AS TOLD TO Joshua Brosnahan PHOTO Joshua William
64
