The folks at The Smoking Tire are more accustomed to carving canyons with modern, high-performance cars than rallying ancient vehicles from the turn of the century, but there’s more than one way to have fun driving.
To prove that point, the YouTube channel’s hosts, Matt Farah and Zack Klapman, entered the Audrain Museum’s Veteran’s Run. The road rally is a 20-mile out-and-back run in Newport, Rhode Island featuring cars from the pre-war (and they mean WWI) era that was inspired by London-to-Brighton Run in the U.K.
For their race, they were given control of a 1902 Packard Model F, of which only four were ever built. The massive, single-cylinder engine has a six-and-a-half-inch bore that allows it to make 12 hp (9 kW/12.1 PS) but that’s only when it’s working properly.
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Farah openly admits that he doesn’t really know what he’s doing but the Packard was wisely accompanied by a mechanic who, just a few minutes after taking off, informs the hosts that there’s something wrong with the car.
Unable to do much more than idle, the car can’t move at more than a walking pace. Worse still, when it encounters a hill, Klapman and the mechanic must get out and push.
It all makes for a rather slow rally. Mind you, when the car reaches a downhill section and winds up going up to a whopping 20 mph (32 km/h), the hosts sound terrified, worrying that the seatbeltless motorcar will roll over.
It winds up taking the group more than two hours to reach their lunch spot, just 20 miles from the start. Despite the troubles, they were the ninth car to reach it, hinting at just how challenging these early cars are to operate. Eventually, after the troubles persist, they decide to throw in the towel, which kind of makes you wonder how these newfangled motorcars ever took off.