The Gilmore Car Museum Will Let You Drive A Model-T For Less Than $100
When it comes to dream cars, you've usually got to have one to drive one. However, there are ways to test-drive the car of your dreams without irking the dealership or pawning vital organs. Several racetracks and driving centers in Las Vegas, for instance, will let you drive a high-strung supercar around the track for $299 to $599, and the exotic cars menu includes the outrageously tasty Lamborghini Temerario, Porsche 911 GT 2 RS, McLaren 570 GT4, and Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo. But if you'd rather putter around in a pre-war vintage car, the rural southwest district of Michigan may be just what you're looking for.
The Gilmore Car Museum is pretty much a driving school with its own three-mile roadway. What's unique about the museum is the Model T Driving Experience, where, as the name implies, you can tootle around in a Tin Lizzie. While you'd have to fork over $13,400 to $16,300 to experience the quirkiness of driving a Model T on a road today, the folks at the Gilmore Car Museum are charging only $99 for the privilege.
Driving a Model T is something else
Ford sold 15 million Model Ts between 1909 and 1927. It remains one of the best-selling cars in history and the first car that brought the automobile to the masses. It's also impressive how Henry Ford conjured the driving controls of his first mass-produced car. You don't just open the door, climb in, and drive a Model T, which is why Gilmore Car Museum's driving school has expert instructors to teach students the rudiments of driving a Model T, and you'd better be paying attention since the controls will initially drive you nuts.
As a precursor, the Model T has three pedals, but none of them is the gas pedal. Instead, the left pedal is the clutch or gear selector, the right one is for the brakes, and the middle one is for reverse. Meanwhile, the throttle is a stalk on the right behind the steering wheel, while there's another control stalk on the left for the spark advance. We have no idea how to drive it if the clutch pedal fails, but we do know that crank-starting a Model T takes time, patience, and the right technique.
It's nowhere near what the younger generation got used to in an average sedan or crossover. It's why each 3.5-hour session of the museum's Model T driving school includes a comprehensive breakdown on how to use the spark and throttle levers, how to coordinate your hand and foot controls, how to shift gears (the Model T has a low and high gear, and that's it), and how to manipulate the neutral and brake lever.
It's still a museum with over 500 cars on display
The Gilmore Car Museum started as a private collection of Kalamazoo businessman Donald S. Gilmore. It opened its doors on July 31, 1966, with 35 cars, including a 1913 Rolls-Royce, a 1920 Pierce-Arrow, and a 1927 Ford Model T. The sprawling 90-acre facility includes a museum with over 500 cars — including 100 vintage pedal cars and a 1930 Rolls-Royce gifted by Walt Disney – a historic campus with seven partner museums, a faithfully recreated 1930s Shell gas station, and a functional 1941 Silk City Diner that serves actual food and drinks.
As for the Ford Model T driving school, you'll need a valid driver's license along with the $99 tuition fee to enroll. The program includes a history lesson on Henry Ford and the Model T, a souvenir booklet, a certificate of completion, and admission to the 190,000 square feet of museums, including additional collections from the Classic Car Club of America, the Pierce-Arrow Foundation, the Lincoln Motor Car Heritage Museum, the Museum of the Horseless Carriage, and more.