The 2011 Montana 500
A short story
By Dennis Powers

For years, my main hobby had been vintage steam engines and prairie tractors. Most of these weighed in excess of 20,000 lbs., and a total restoration and rebuild would take two or three years. As a farmer and mechanic, I had the shop to work on these large machines, although our farm machinery always had first priority. The last tractor project I restored was a 30-60 Case tractor. It weighed 28,000 lbs., was a two cylinder with 10” bores and a 12” stroke. The flywheel alone weighed 1550 lbs.

I bought my first T, a 1920 runabout, thirty plus years ago, and drove it every summer. Minor repairs were needed, never anything major. In 2004 I acquired a depot hack pickup built on a 27 running gear. This started going along to steam shows to haul my needed tools. In 2007 another T came along. A friend wanted to sell his 27 touring with a bad engine. He had owned this T for forty years. All his kids had learned to drive in this T, but it had been in storage for 10 years. So the new project was rebuilding a Model T engine.

The 27 engine was rebuilt with new babbitt, pistons, valves, trans bushings, etc. Nothing was balanced nor was any alignment checked. The engine ran well and after about several hundred miles I opened it up. A nice piece of flat county pavement several miles long was used for the “speed test”. 47 MPH driving one way with 47.5 MPH going the other. Having no Idea what this speed meant, I thought that might be pretty good for a stock T.

I had read stories from time to time over the years about the Montana 500 Endurance Run for only Model T’s. The run was 500 miles long on Montana state roads, lasted several days, and

your times were measured by a stopwatch. The 500 sounded very interesting. So now it was time to do something about the Montana 500. In the fall of 2009 I emailed Tom Carnegie about my interest. He got right back with encouraging information about the 500. I’ll never forget this quote, “if you can build a model T that will run 50 MPH both directions, you will have a good time.”

Dan Brown and I have been friends through the antique tractor hobby for twenty plus years. We had spent a lot of time together with our common interest. I wondered if Dan would also be interested in the 500, so I called him. After an explanation of the 500, he spent a few days thinking about the idea and called back. His suggestion was that I build the engine, and he would build the car.  If we only did this once, I would still have the engine and he the car.

So our plan is to get ready for the 2011 Montana 500. Dan’s acquisition and rebuild of the car is a story in itself and he can tell that.So on to lots of research, then trying to build a fast Model T. Two former MT 500 enthusiasts were very helpful with suggestions and ideas. I bought two rusty ‘27 engines and thought T stuff didn’t cost much. Took them apart and I didn’t get much either. Finally a good ’26-’27 block was found. So with the help of all my friends that babbitt, do machine work, balance, etc the engine and transmission took shape.

Dan was still working on the car and I was anxious to run the engine to see how it would perform. I had a 26 roadster that was ready for restoration. It had a primer body and no fenders or upholstery. I pulled the original engine and installed my new Montana 500 engine. On the first road test I was impressed. You could actually feel some acceleration. Or was it just the straight pipe making me think I had a racer?