| 
Rosalie Burton's Model A replica is her Camelot
It seems fitting that Rosalie Burton’s Model A replica
was made by the Camelot Motor Car Co. The definition of Camelot
is a place or situation regarded as enlightened, cultured,
beautiful and peaceful.
Burton’s car has brought her a beauty and peace that
tastes even sweeter because she is in the midst of a battle
with cancer.
Burton and Lance, her husband of 35 years, love Model A’s.
They are members of the Heart of America Model A Club, and
have a 1930 Fordor Town Sedan and a 1928 AR Sport Coupe. Touring
in the Fordor is something this Raymore couple enjoys immensely,
and last year they drove nearly 5,000 miles in it. One of
their trips was to Tennessee and through the Great Smoky Mountains.
But Burton can’t drive her husband’s cars because
they have manual transmissions, so about a year ago she began
searching for a car she could drive. She figured a Model A
replica would be ideal because it has a four-cylinder engine
from a Ford Pinto, an automatic transmission and a front suspension
from a Mustang II. Finding the Camelot came at just the right
time.
The Camelot Motor Car Co. came into existence when it bought
the assets of the bankrupt Shay Car Co. in the early 1980s.
Shay developed a line of Model A replicas that used a custom
frame and modern components. Camelot hoped to sell the replicas
through Ford dealerships, but that plan never took off and
the company went out of business in 1986.
Burton, of Raymore, located this Camelot Phaeton in Sparta,
Mich., in January. Most of the Shay, and later Camelot, cars
were roadsters, which makes the Phaeton quite rare. Lance
drove to Michigan and towed the car home in one long, tiring
weekend.
Rosalie named her car Katie, after one of her granddaughters.
Although she hasn’t driven it much yet, she has big
plans for the rest of the year. She and her husband plan to
drive it to the national Shay and Camelot convention in Springfield
in June. It will be, she said, the “jewel of the ball.”
Rosalie's fight with cancer has taught her that there's
no reason to make dreams wait. When she hits the road in Katie,
her Model A replica, it will be Camelot.
The Burtons have toured extensively in their 1930 Model A,
foreground.
Article and photos courtesy of Tom Strongman.
|
