About Our Club

The following is an excerpt from our SCRIPT, dated February 27, 1961, Volume 1, Number 2, authored by Charter Member Edie Jones:

“As the latter part of 1951 was drawing to a close, a small group of hardy individuals, with a common love, formulated plans for an organization.  The love these people tendered in their hearts was for the powerful purr of a four-banger engine embedded in a sturdy, dependable and distinguished carcass.  These people cherished the Model A Ford.  Regardless of year, style, type, or kind, they believed in the preservation, restoration, and enjoyment of their thirty-year-old piece of equipment.

Some of this group had lived through an earlier era of horseless carriages; some had beheld and believed in Henry’s earlier marvels; some of these people did not even prevail on this earth when the Golden Era of 1928 to 1931 turned out the Model A Ford.  Nevertheless, their mutual interests banded together to form the Model A Club of Santa Clara Valley.  Theirs was not the first of its kind, but none possessed the vigor and interest of this group.

When 1960 rolled around, the group had jelled, obtained a charter, and was bursting with ideas.  To lead this group, “Mr. Model A” himself, Pete Taormino, was selected as President.  To aid and assist him was Lee Sherman as Vice President, Thelma Sorich as Secretary, and Davor Sorich as Treasurer.

This “mutual admiration society” first met together with their “first loves” for a picture-taking session at Trader Lew’s on March 6, 1960.  This event was the first recording of our machines to preserve for future years as to what we had started.”

Historian Edie Jones wrote this short synopsis of SCVC’s humble beginnings many years ago.  In the same article, she went on to describe the club’s tours that first year:

“March 29 (1960) saw the cars chugging through the blossoms of Santa Clara Valley and terminating in the midst of chatter and ice cream in Saratoga”

It would be interesting to know how many mountains of ice cream this club has leveled since then.  That was then and this is now – the 21st Century – our 1928-1931 Model A's continue to perform flawlessly with their increasing age. Our club has grown to numbers unthinkable in 1960 and has become one of the strongest and most active clubs in MAFCA.  Our cars have been seen from Coast to Coast and border to border as our members do drive everywhere.  Time has inexorably marched on, and many of those charter founders are no longer with us.  But the spirit of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter endures, with an abiding affection for and commitment to preserving the Model A.  Thanks to all those original SCVC-ers and their simple intent to gather a group of friends together with a common desire to keep these old Model A’s on the road.