Our museum was visited last week by about 80 people who were in the area for the 32nd Annual New London to New Brighton Antique Car Run which took place on Saturday, August 11. The grand run of 120 miles is patterned after the London to Brighton car run in England which had its first run in 1896 and is the longest running motoring event in the world.
Each year the group for the New London to New Brighton run enjoyes some shorter pre tour runs enjoying the area around New London and getting their cars ready for the main event on Saturday. We were piviliged to be included on their list of pre tours this year. There were cars from many different states as well as some from Canada taking part in this year's event.
It is nice to see all of their historic cars still in operation. To qualify for the run, cars must be 1908 or older of any engine type, and up to 1915 one or two cylinder models. There were about 60 cars in the run this year.
I enjoyed being able to take photos of a few of the vehicles and visit with their owners about the cars. It was interesting to talk to the owners of the Stanley Steamer and learn a bit about that car. This was the first time I had ever seen one in operation. They said that the car can only go about 30 miles until it is time to refill the boiler with water, (or sometimes less miles than that if they waste too much steam blowing the whistle.) The car was designed to burn kerosene to produce the steam, but the owners said they try to use jet airplne fuel which is similar to kerosene, but more hightly refined and burns cleaner.
We look forward to future car run groups coming to the museum.
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| 1906 Cadillac |
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| 1905 Columbia |
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| Stanley Steamer |
