102-Year-Old Woman Still Drives Her 82-Year-Old Car
She's held her driver's license for 90 years
Most classic car owners are accustomed to the unusual looks other motorists cast toward their relics on the road. But when Margaret Dunning is behind the wheel of her 1930 Packard 740 Roadster, she draws more attention than her vehicle.
Dunning, age 102, may be one of a small handful of classic-car drivers who can lay claim to the fact they're older than their vehicles.
She was born in 1910, and lives in Plymouth, Michigan, twenty years before her beloved Packard. She's been driving since she was 8 years old, and officially received her license at 12, after her father died. In an appearance at the Concours d' Elegance last month, Dunning recounted her start as an automotive aficionado.
"I'm just a farm girl, and my dad had a lot of machinery, and I adored my dad," she said. "I became familiar with the tools, because the minute I said I didn't know what I was looking for, he'd say, 'Go back to the house.'"
She owns several classic vehicles. In addition to the Packard, she includes a '66 Cadillac DeVille, a '75 Cadillac Eldorado convertible and a 1931 Model A in her collection. The one she still drives the most? Her everyday car, an '03 Cadillac DeVille. Occasionally, she still changes her own oil.
"Before old age overtook me, I could scoot under the car very nicely," she said.
I'm more surprised that she was able to drive at 8. This was long before they had power steering, and it takes a good deal of strength even nowadays having lighter weight vehicles to drive a car without it. She must have been a very muscular child, I'm guessing from farm work.
And here I thought my dad was bad for making my mom keep her car for eighteen years, as well as his own sixteen-year-old one. lol Way to go, lady. You're freaking awesome.
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