OWLS HEAD – As of June 26, a crew of four Owls Head Transportation Museum employees ranked 53rd of 117 competing cars during this week's Great Race antique auto challenge from Buffalo, New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Great Race provides endurance and navigation challenges to antique, vintage, and collector cars, according to the event website.

The description reads: “Each day the driver and navigator team receives a set of course instructions that indicate every turn, speed change, stop, and start that the team must make throughout the day (usually 220 to 250 such instructions per day). Along the course route there will be from four to seven checkpoints recording the exact time that the team passes that point. The objective is to arrive at each checkpoint at the correct time, not the fastest.”

For two hours, Wednesday, June 27, the autos filtered onto the OHTM airfield, having logged their racing time from the day's starting point in Gardiner. Team OHTM blended in with the crowd as more than a thousand car enthusiasts peered in windows, looked under hoods, and snapped pictures during an afternoon race stopover.

NEAA and Events Director Toby Stinson; Technology and Infrastructure Manager Aedan Jordan; Ground Vehicle Conservator Warren Kincaid; and Automotive Crew Volunteer Ron Quebec displayed the 1935 Ford Phaeton they've been competing with since the race began June 23. Then, as did all the other vehicles following the route toward Seal Cove, Bar Harbor, Bangor, and a Canada finish line on July 1, they parted from the crowd and headed north.

The car features MODEL 48. 85 bhp, 221 cu. in. L-head V-8 engine, three-speed manual transmission, solid front axle and live rear axle with transverse semi-elliptic leaf springs, and four wheel mechanical drum brakes. Wheelbase: 112" - original specification, according to a facts sheet compiled by owner Harvey Geiger.

The car has been extensively modified for rally competition, and has participated in the trans-continental Great Race three times.

In 2005, a previous owner in Oklahoma rebuilt the engine. In 2010, a restoration firm in South Carolina moved the seat back 2 5/8'' for more leg room.

Specifications and performance modifications include: Dearborn Blue, Original radio – converted AM/FM, Fog King Driving Lamps, Dual Horns, Electric fuel pumps (two with cross over witch), 12 volt system and alternator, Electronic ignition, Hydraulic brakes, (no side curtains- iron frames), 1939 steering box, 1939 transmission, Two speed Columbia rear end, Walker radiator with fan – cylindrical overflow tank, Radials with nitro, Trunk rack, Rear Mounted spare tire in metal case, Kelsey Hayes wire wheels, Duel SS exhaust with "Smitty" mufflers, 1935 original South Carolina license plate,
Rally Speedometer - steering column mounted- front wheel take off –– radial tires/nitrogen.

And still, it keeps going, just like the 1936 Ford Fordor Deluxe police cruiser that once worked the streets of Windsor, New York. At 5 feet tall, Louise Feeney, of Edicott, New York, raises the seat and sits on a cushion in order to drive the car that only gets 15 miles to the gallon.

Also, with an allowed modification to the tire type, Concord Radial Tires, Feeney and her husband need not fear the old patch-as-you-go tires that would have delayed them every 25 miles.

"We have to be able to get over 200 miles to a tank between fill-ups," husband Jim Feeney said of the nine-day journey, of which they drove to the start and will drive home again after the Nova Scotia finish. We're OK with that....It's a lot of time in an old car, I'll tell you."

Click Great Race for information about the annual event.

Click Owls Head Transportation Museum for upcoming events.

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com