Larry Azevedo
We are indeed a fortunate club to have so many knowledgeable members. I’m not going to mention each by name relative to the flatheads but today I am going to talk about Mr. Model T. - Larry Azevedo. Larry is a long-time member of the Tumbleweed club and is recognized as being Mr. T. Larry is past US President of the Model T Club of America. He is an active member of the local Tin Lizzie’s. He is preparing his T for another 500 mile race in Montana. He won that race last year in only his second try. He has graced us with a technical review of how to make a model T go fast reliably. His wife, Lorna, entertained us with a wonderful telephone operator skit where she counseled Ford executives.
He recalls driving a 1952 Ford truck around in California when he was only 8-9 years old. He also admits to regretting he didn’t release the emergency brake until it got so hot it smoked the floorboards. Sometimes he’d do the shifting for his dad from the right hand seat by shifting with his left hand. Larry came to Albuquerque in 1977 to work at Sandia.
Larry worked at Sandia until he retired to do what he really enjoys which is diddling with vehicles. At Sandia Larry measured things. Yep, he and his group were the measurement experts. He knows precisely what an ounce is and what a cubic foot of air should be. We have seen how that precision has translated to making a Model T run.
He regrets he hasn’t finished his 1941 Ford pickup yet. But, he says he is again overcome by a need to run the Montana 500 in his model T. He says he avoided that race for years because he knew once he got involved, he would be committed. On the side, at the May picnic Lorna told me sometimes, when Larry is working on his T, she thinks he should be committed!
Jeff Jackson
