Most kids remember the first time they were in a car when the speedometer crossed the century mark. Old Cars Weekly reader Dave Reardon’s century-mark experience may have turned him into a Ford man. It undoubtedly made him a ’40 Ford Deluxe coupe fan.
“I wanted one since I was about 10 years old — it’s the first time I ever got to go 100 mph in a car,” Reardon said of the ’40 Ford. “I wasn’t driving, though. The driver was a good friend who used to come to the gas station where I hung out and washed cars on Saturdays. He had to go to another town one day to pick up a part and he said, ‘Jump in,’ and we got his ’40 Ford up to 100 mph, and I said, ‘Boy!’”
The ride happened in about 1945, and by the early 2000s, after owning many other Fords, Reardon began a determined search for a ’40 coupe of his own from his home in Dubuque, Ia.
“When they were affordable, I couldn’t afford one, so when I got it in my head to get one, I had tunnel vision,” he said.
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