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Evan Delman, a chiropractor in White Plains, insists he was just standing in his driveway a year ago when a Ford Model A drove by. It rocked his world. "I don't know why I suddenly thought, 'I have to have one!' And within a week, I found one on Craigslist, in Pennsylvania," said Delman.
The car was in rough shape when he bought it. Beyond "high four figures," he declined to say exactly how much he paid. The previous owner was an elderly man who had started to restore it but then let it sit for years. "We had to cut down a tree to get it out of the barn it was in," Delman said.
Now, he spends his free time hanging out in his garage with his 1930 Model A Sport Coupe, even when he's not working on it. He sits with it and in it (reminding admirers "Don't touch the paint") at car rallies, such as a show benefitting the Hawthorne Fire Department in the Rose Hill Shopping Center on Saturday nights. Delman and a friend's son, Daniel Russy, 15, from the Bronx, N.Y., arrived early and sat in the heat of the late afternoon as new and vintage Corvettes, Mustangs and other American cars filtered into the parking lot. Among a slew of beautiful autos, old and new, the Model A surely stood out.
A Greenwich native and graduate of St. Luke's in New Canaan, Delman is a Representative Town Meeting member for District 9/Pemberwick-Glenville in Greenwich. He can't explain the sudden onset of Model A enthusiasm.
"I'd always liked the old cars, but I'd never really thought of owning one," he said. He'd also never worked on engines or cars beyond changing the oil.
A friend helped him repair the motor. Delman did the exhaust repairs himself. "There's nothing fancy about the engine," he said. "If a part here is moving, there's another one over there connected to it."
The Model A experience is turning out to be an obsession. Delman said he's looking for his next antique car, and Russy said he's getting into it, too. "When I get older, I'd like to have one," he said.
What is your favorite classic car? Leave a comment below.
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