Antique cars rumble into Encinitas
ENCINITAS —- Dozens of antique cars rumbled into North County on Tuesday during an outing of the Horseless

Carriage Club of America.

ENCINITAS —- Dozens of antique cars rumbled into North County on Tuesday during an outing of the Horseless Carriage Club of America.

The motorcade was launched from the Town and Country Resort Hotel in San Diego, where club members are gathering this week for the national organization’s 70th annual convention.

The 60-mile outing took the car buffs as far north as Carlsbad, where they visited a private car collection. The return trip included a stop at a restoration shop in Sorrento Valley. Another stop brought the group to the Moonlight Beach parking lot in Encinitas.

“They’re not made to go on the freeway,” said George Coffin, a car collector from La Mesa who coordinated Tuesday’s drive on the Coast Highway.

But the cars —- most of them, at least —- had plenty of power to reach the top of Mount Soledad in La Jolla, another stop on Tuesday’s route.

During the Moonlight Beach stop, Coffin relaxed in the leather-upholstered rear seat of a 1913 Model T, a ride equipped with brass-plated running boards and a folding canvas top.

Coffin admitted to installing a starter motor in the wood-framed, steel-skinned automobile.

“I’m getting too damn old to crank the thing,” he said.

Some of the cars had red license plates that didn’t name a state but bore some digits and two words: horseless carriage.

Organizers said there are about 175 families in the local chapter of the Horseless Carriage Club. The national convention has drawn enthusiasts from across the country. The cars will be displayed from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the auto museum in Balboa Park.

All of them predate 1916, organizers said.

Ralph McNeil’s 1912 Buick had gas headlamps, wooden spokes and a hand crank to turn over a four-cylinder motor.

Dan Seemen found some volunteers to push the 1912 Packard 30 he was driving so he could pop the clutch to start its engine. Once started, the motor emitted a low and steady rumble, the sound of four, paint-can-sized pistons displacing 437 cubic inches of air-fuel mixture with one combined stroke.

In the rear seat was Marcia Rising, a visitor from Stow, Mass., who dressed the part of passenger with a driving cap, a driving duster overcoat and leather gauntlets.

Her garb may have seemed extreme in balmy Encinitas, but it is nothing compared to the many layers her friends and family in Massachusetts would be wearing, she said.

“They’re back in the cold!”