T Thoughts – Raymond Megaw

Hello members,

I have put together a few memories of my life with old cars.

My first vintage car was an Austin 12 which I bought in the 70s from a lady in Rostrevor,Co Down, my first restoration job. I joined Vintage Austin Register and a few local clubs. At that time we were young and fit enough to do our work and head off either to join or take part in the vintage outings, mostly fairly local.   My late brother in law had a Rover and we had lots of good times together.

From there I have had quite a few restoration jobs, selling one to buy something better as you do. I now have three Austins, which I have a great passion for, they are great old cars and I have made many friends through the Austin clubs.  I have Rolls Royce 20 which I used for weddings; and of course the Model T.

I had a hankering for a Model T for a long time but in the North here no one showed any interest in them. However,  I saw one advertised in the ‘Automobile’ about 17 years ago in Tewkesbury. As luck would have it, my sister and brother-in-law were in the Cotswolds on holiday.

Now they know nothing about vintage cars, but they went to see it, the owner ‘pushed’ it out of the garage and they took lots of photographs and got them sent to me. So I bought it, got it home and as you know, the camera DOES lie sometimes – another restoration job.  As you can see from the photographs it had to be completely restored.

The first and lasting Model T friend I made was EAMON Dunne who came up to see my purchase along with the late and great Henry Bates from Donabate. Two very wise and witty men.

I was very proud when I introduced my T on its first outing which was David’s run in Adare – 14 years ago. I still drive my other vintage cars but I know it is the T that I get the most fun out of and will be the last car to go. Over the years we have done lots of runs, met lots of interesting and helpful people and above all made lots of good friends. From the time we retired we have been privileged to visit some lovely parts of Ireland from West Cork to Killarney to North coast of Antrim.

So it is important that when this pandemic is over, we resume our enthusiasm in our cars and carry on as before, renewing our friendships and making new ones. It has taken a good while to build our club up to its now standard and we cannot let the hard work of our Secretary and other long standing members go in vain.

Keep well everyone. See you all 2021.

Raymond Megaw


COMMENT

Raymond Megaw is a past president of The Irish Model T ford Club. Hailing from Northern Ireland, he was the first president of our club from that jurisdiction where in 2016 he and Olene organised our first annual rally, based in Ballycastle and toured the north east Antrim coast to include the Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills Distillery.

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