By Carson Williamson
The local chapter of the Ford Model A Club, known as Delmarva A’s, held its annual picnic on July 19. The club, devoted to an appreciation and love of the Ford Model A automobile, was started by Andrew Pogan. Along with recent member Dr. Barry Morrison, who held the picnic at his house, they provided some insight and historical information both on the car itself, but also the founding of the club and its time here in Delmarva.
The Ford Model A served as Ford’s second market-successful automobile after the Ford Model T and was produced from 1928 to 1932. By March of 1930, there had been over three million sold. Pogan has owned a Model A since he was 16 years old, having inherited it from his grandfather who bought it brand new.
“I’ve driven it over 100,000 miles since I restored it,” Pogan said. “I am a driver, and our entire club is drivers. There are people that have show quality cars, mine among them, but our interest is in driving cars. To me, it’s just my old car.”
Andrew Pogan, left, and Dr. Barry Morrison show off a picture of Andrew’s 1930 Model A.
In addition to his Model A, Pogan has also been working on a “speedster,” which has been constructed from numerous car pieces. “I bought that in 2016, and it took me five years to put that together,” Pogan explained.“This is a car that Ford never built. It’s kind of like a hotrod that a kid in the 20s or the 30s might have built. It’s got parts on it from 1926 to 1931 Ford cars; the back bumper is the front bumper off a 1931 Ford dump truck. I call it a Johnny Cash car, a little bit of this and a little bit of that.”
In 1969, Pogan moved to Maryland and brought his Model A to the area in 1973. “I couldn’t find a Model A club in the area I was living in. There was an AACA club; an Antique Automobile Club of America… at that time, the AACA wasn’t looking for members like they were now, and they were not interested in a long-haired hippie looking guy with a beat up Model A,” Pogan explained. “So I started restoring the car myself. One of the parts buyers I bought from was part of a Model A club in Fairfax, Virginia, and through him I joined (that) club, and eventually got involved with the greater Baltimore club, and the southern Maryland club.”
Pogan was heavily involved in those clubs, even serving as president of the Fairfax club a couple times and as technical director for all three clubs at one point. Retiring in 2002 from his career as a high school physics teacher, Pogan and his wife bought a travel trailer and began travelling to the Eastern Shore. “We spent summers here, and when my wife retired in 2008, we were trying to decide whether we wanted to move here full time or not,” Pogan explained. “We rented a house for a year, and it worked very well, and we eventually moved here to the Eastern Shore. There was no Model A club, there was an AACA club that I joined and I’m still a part of.”
One of the members of that club went on to buy a Model A and was interested in joining a Model A club and talked to Pogan about doing so, only to discover there wasn’t one in the area. As such, he joined the National Model A Restorers Club.
“What he was interested in was what they called a touring class; it’s different from the judged class,” Pogan explained. “Judge class is very strict on what kind of fasteners you have, what kind of materials, the colors… everything you have to adhere to in order to get your car judged. They don’t judge modified cars at all.”
Pogan, who was part of the club as well, had modified his own car to the judging standards, though he had a couple changes that disqualified him from being able to be judged.
The primary interest in events held by the National Model A club was primarily on the judged cars, and many of the people that were like Pogan and were barely ineligible became upset about the inability to participate on the level of judged cars. In 1993, the annual membership meet was held in Annapolis, Md., and Pogan spoke up during one of the big meetings and served as spokesperson for himself and the other drivers to be able to establish a touring class for the Model A Restorers Club. As a result, Pogan put together a committee and established rules and guidelines and officially started a touring class for the national club. In 2014, Pogan helped found the Delmarva A’s Ford Model A club, primarily focused on driving rather than showing their cars. From there, the Delmarva A’s have been attending various car shows and activities across Delmarva.
For more information about membership or upcoming events, contact Club President George Brown at 302-943-2792.
