When did the old hot rods, the real hot rods…the Deuces, the highboys, the roadsters…when did they get relegated to the manicured lawns and parking lot shows? Was there a good reason for that move? Were they too irreplaceable now to risk running down the strip in anger, just like they did decades before my time, years before my father’s time, and even during my grandfather’s lifetime? Keep in mind, this 1928 Ford Model A is eighty-eight years old. Well, at least the body is…the frame is from a 1932 and the powertrain is a 347 Ford and a T-5 five-speed. But compared to the other cars running in the Stick Shift class at I-29 Dragway, this might as well be the grizzled, tattooed old grandfather that will be dead before he suffers the indignity of going to the old folks’ home. This is the badass that worked on the farm and took a break to tour Europe sometime in the early 1940s, then came home and got right back to the grindstone. No nitrous (yet), no turbocharger, no supercharger, and no problem planting the rear tires to the ground and moving out with a purpose. Just like the generation of people that came from the same time frame, this Ford is all you need and nothing you don’t, all action, little flash, and still legendary, years after the legend was created.