Ford Model A New York-to-LA record attempt ends in breakdown

The New York-to-LA 60-hour record attempt in a 1930 Ford Model A came to an end just outside of Amarillo, Tex., on Tuesday afternoon. After having covered more than 1,700 miles with little incident, aside from an overheating issue in Zanesville, Ohio, that ate up several hours, the car driven by Australians Rod Wade and Michael Flanders suffered a broken crankshaft. The duo planned to set a new record for a pre-war car by driving in their 1930 Ford Model A, nicknamed "Tudor Rose," across the U.S. The car was fresh from a successful completion of the Peking-to-Paris rally, coming in 23rd out of a field of more than 90 entrants.

Before the breakdown, the team was making good time across the Midwest and cruising in the low-60-mph range to achieve a 50-mph average. Wade and Flanders were devastated when the breakdown occurred just after passing Amarillo -- a broken crankshaft is not quite a roadside repair. The team put the car into storage just outside the Amarillo airport, rented a car and continued on to Los Angeles.

Breakdowns on New York-to-LA record attempts have always been commonplace. Even in 2006, Alex Roy's 2000 BMW M5 suffered a breakdown just outside of Oklahoma City when the fuel filter gave out, the car having been through several Gumball rallies across the world prior to the run. The same Amarillo airport near which Wade and Flanders' Ford broke down was used as a stopping point by Roy's chase plane piloted by his friends on his second record attempt in 2006, in which he broke David Diem and Doug Turner's 1983 record (for modern cars, that is).

Wade and Flanders had always been conscious of the possibility of breakdown; they spent several hours in Ohio on the first day of the run trying to get the overheating issue under control. The Ford overheated in several test runs prior to the team's departure, so the team installed a 100-liter water tank in place of the back seat to channel water to the radiator, in addition to installing an electric radiator fan to improve airflow. Those were about the only mechanical improvements made to the 1930 car.

The team was realistic about the problems they were likely to run into on this 2,900-plus-mile run. "So the only thing that's going to stop us from getting there are the two Fs: which is mental fatigue and fatigue of the car. 'Cause this is 80 odd years old, anything can break anywhere," Wade said a day prior to departure.

Hopefully, this won't be the end of pre-war-car record attempts from New York to LA, as the 60-hour (or better) mark is quite achievable in such vehicles just doing the speed limit all the way through. Wade has a couple more ocean-to-ocean runs planned in other countries, including his native Australia, as well as another Peking-to-Paris rally. We're hoping he'll return to give New York to LA another go.

And of course, someone else might even set the record for pre-war cars before then.

By Jay Ramey