At the age of six, I sat on my father's lap and steered his car down a highway.  My dad's 1940 Buick was a low-level four-door sedan, but memorable because it was styled by General Motors' long time master of automobile design, Harley Earl. He understood strong design, in contrast to the many bland examples of today. Every kid on the street recognized the distinctive Buick back in the 1940s, just as they know a Porsche today.

The best Buick of 1940 was the Roadmaster convertible. It really was master-of-the-road. Along with Packards and Cadillacs of the era, the big Buicks were faster and more powerful than most cars of the time. Back then, cars had trouble climbing hills. But not the Roadmasters – they flattened hills and outran everyone else, including most European cars. Jeweler Nicola Bulgari keeps collections of Buicks in Rome and Connecticut. He's one of the few Europeans who understands the appeal of pre-war Buicks.

I always wanted one of those Roadmaster convertibles. Only about 600 were made. How many have survived 64 years? Five or 10 percent? So when a very fine example came up for sale in Michigan early in 2004, I bought it. A prudent buyer would have called a car transporter and trucked it home. But since my wife Esta and I were going to attend a family gathering in Chicago in July, a plan formed. First, see if Esta would consider a drive home. Second, get the Buick delivered to Chicago.

My friend John Weinberger is the Ferrari dealer in Hinsdale, near Chicago, so I had a place to keep the car until I arrived. Esta had never been on a cross-country drive, so she was interested. I'd pick the route; she'd pick the hotels and restaurants. And so it was that one morning late in July we drove west out of Chicago, with a non-air conditioned, but reliable (we hoped) car.

The number of things that can go wrong with an old car is astonishing. Water, oil, or gas can leak out. The car can overheat, or the brakes can be dicey. Do the windshield wipers work? (Ours didn't.) What’s the worst that can happen and what do you do about it? Worst case: the car stops and can't be fixed on the road. In that event, you must find a safe place to leave the car until a trucker can pick it up. Then you have to get yourself to an airport. Really just issues of time, money and inconvenience.

But if the worst doesn't happen, you're in for a good adventure. In our case, we quickly discovered three problems:

1. The car wouldn't restart when warm, because of a faulty starter.
2. If the engine were shut off when warm, or allowed to idle very long, it would overheat and lose its coolant.
3. As mentioned, the windshield wipers didn't work.

Everything else was more or less ok, so we devised a system to deal with the problems. We bought Rain-ex, a magic fluid that’s applied to the windshield and causes the raindrops to bead and wash away, so that at least in daylight, you can see fairly well. (This helped us in South Dakota where we had rain and lightning all across the state.)

The other two issues were a little more complicated, and interrelated. Because the gas gauge didn't work, we decided to refuel every 150-170 miles. The owner’s manual said this model had a 17-gallon fuel tank, and we could get 10-12 miles to the gallon! We had to refuel with the engine running, because it wouldn't restart warm. But we couldn't stay at idle long for fear of overheating. You'd be amazed how quickly you can refuel, grab a soft drink, use the restroom, clean the windshield, and be back on the road.

Stopping for lunch involved a different procedure. We had to park and stop the engine, so we needed to park on an incline to allow us to roll and restart the engine if the starter didn't cool down enough. Stopping the engine caused loss of coolant, but we discovered that while we ate lunch the radiator cooled enough for us to remove the cap and add water (which we carried with us). We could also then check the oil, which we were using plenty of. Approximately 20 quarts!

         Day 1 – 500 miles to Sioux City, Iowa (9½ hours)

         Day 2 – 625 miles, Sioux City to Sundance, Wyoming (12½ hours)

         Day 3 – 750 miles, Sundance to Wendover, Nevada (14 hours)

         Day 4 – 625 miles, home (12 hours), and the worst day because it was 100 degrees all across Nevada. Damn near killed us. (Inside the car, because motor heat came inside, it was at least 10-15 degrees hotter.)

Our clothes were soaked and within a half hour the cold water we bought was warm.

We put the top down on the first day in Iowa. TOO HOT! Thereafter, it was either too hot or too wet, so the top stayed up. When we finally stopped, about 8:30 each night, we’d hurry and shower and find a place for dinner and a nice bottle of wine. More than once our choice was extremely simple; red or white house wine only.

Great coffee in the morning? Forget it! This was the big hardship for Esta. She's addicted to strong coffee and there's not a Starbucks in sight across Iowa, South Dakota or Utah. She forgot about overheating when she spotted a Starbucks in an Elko, Nevada casino!

By the last day on the road, we developed a workable routine for gas stops. We'd pull into the station, and leave the engine running. I'd pump the gas and use the restroom, while Esta bought some cold drinks and car food. All this time, the temperature gauge would be climbing toward boiling. I couldn't check the oil, so I'd arbitrarily add a quart, then jump in the car and drive slowly around and around the station, to keep airflow through the radiator, until Esta could jump in. Then we'd hit the road again. The water temperature would come down, and we were set for another three hours of adventure.

When we talked about this trip, we wanted to stop at Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. As it turned out, we missed Yellowstone and the Tetons. We had to shorten the route and press on before troubles got us. All the smiles, thumbs up, and honks from big semis and cars encouraged us. Everyone wanted to come to our rescue, whenever we stopped along the way. More than 10 times, we had someone walk over to us and say, “You have a lot of fluid leaking from your car!”

***

Now that the car's home, its problems will be fixed so that it's ready for the Great San Francisco to Santa Monica Open Road Race. This drive starts from the Fairmont Hotel on Admission Day, September 9, at 8:30 AM. There will be two or three other old Buicks, some Packards of the '30s, Chryslers, Cadillacs, LaSalles, a Stutz, an Alfa Romeo and others.

We'll spend three days traveling on non-freeways, passing through Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, Carmel Valley, King City, Taft and Ojai on our way to the Santa Monica Pier. You're invited to our departure, where you'll witness the triumph of hope over experience.