Horseless carriage tour reaches Brighton

BRIGHTON — Roughly two dozen vehicles older than most things on the road made the annual trip from New London to Brighton Saturday morning. The tour is part of a tradition started in London and Brighton (across the pond) to celebrate the end of “red flag laws” that required someone to walk ahead of recently invented cars with a flag to alert people of their approach.

Saturday morning, participants got into vehicles older than themselves in Mt. Pleasant, and set out on the roughly 75 mile round trip to New London, then Brighton, then back to Mt. Pleasant.

Every car involved was manufactured in the brass era, before 1928. Those involved came from near and far, bringing their passion projects out for a drive.

“I tell my wife, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I have no girlfriends, I have no motorcycles … this is what I enjoy doing,” said Larry Schramp, who drove a 1913 Buick. “It’s just fun to do for us. You see the world very differently when you’re driving at 35 miles an hour down the road in an open car versus a modern car. You notice lots of things you’ve never seen before.”

The cars often need maintenance along the way. Drivers are tailed by AAA vehicles, although most know their vehicles inside and out, and carry tools to make whatever fixes they need, or drive them such that the need for fixes is minimal.

“You drive it with common sense,” said Schramp, who has already taken several similar tours this year. “Every car has what I call a sweet spot … this car here just feels right (at) about 33-36 miles per hour. Every car is a little bit different.”

Brian Desma, drove a 1918 Buick for the tour. He said it was his first time participating in such an event.

“You’ve got to sort things out a little bit … I bought this about 10-12 years ago and it wasn’t running very well, I had to do a lot of stuff to it,” he said. “But it’s fun, it’s kind of like driving a time machine.”

Desma said the camaraderie was also a major draw.

“The people, they’re all interested in the cars and helping each other out,” he said. “The support that the red flag tour has; they have signs on the road, they have support vehicles, they organize the lunches, dinners, so if you didn’t have this, you’d just be out here by yourself, it’d be kind of risky. So it’s all about the people, really, the cars are kind of secondary.”

Mike Fortney drove his Model T touring car in this year’s annual event for the fourth time. He said the community kept him coming back.

“We enjoy the scenery, the people, looking at the other cars,” he said. “Plus it’s in Iowa. I’m from Iowa and it’s in Iowa.”

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