Meanwhile, over on the Borgeson tour, we learned right away that Borgeson head honcho Gerry Zordan doesn't miss a chance for an adventure. So even though he was in the middle of moving his company to a newer, larger facility, he was eager to move a small but enthusiastic band of rodders from Torrington, Connecticut, to Columbus. It was only a couple hours into the trip, however, that all movement came to an abrupt halt. Billy O'Connell's '48 Merc, piloted by Gerry, ran over a piece of road debris just inside the Pennsylvania border, causing the radiator mount to bust up the bottom of the radiator. Luckily, a local rodder-Jim McNeil of the Orange City Roadsters-was located through the NSRA Fellow Pages and helped locate a shop where the Merc could be stored until it could be towed back to Torrington. Gerry caught a ride in Billy O's '32 roadster.
Day 8 Bright and early on the final day, the Mooneyes/Vintage Air/Heidt's tour headed over to the Brookville Roadster headquarters and met up with the Fatman Fabrications tour to get a behind-the-scenes look at how the pieces of many adult children's dreams are made. Careful planning by Brookville Roadster has never seen one of their great products go out of production in over 30 years of constant production and product development. After wishing for one of everything, we moved onto the U.S. Air Force's incredible Wright-Patterson Museum. We'd been to a lot of museums throughout the week, but this one definitely topped the list, not only for its colossal size, but also for the amazing artifacts inside. The final stop before we headed into Columbus was the Dayton Wire Wheel facility for a tour and some grub. As we were reminded throughout the week of tours, it was again obvious that great American products are still made by great American hands.
On the Borgeson leg, Summit Racing had coffee and donuts waiting when they got to their store in Tallmadge, Ohio. It's more like a center for car clubs and enthusiasts, with historic race cars on display, bulletin boards tacked with ads and event announcements, and aisle after aisle of products.