The Santa Clara Valley Model T Ford Club's 49th annual Endurance Run and Lowland Tour is coming to Hollister again this year June 17 featuring pre-1927 race cars and an accompanying tour of pre-1940 automobiles.

According to a press release from the club, Tiffany Ford will have two speedsters on display starting June 2: Car 55, a 1914 Model T Ford speedster, and Car 56, a 1923 Model T Ford speedster built by auto shop students at Gunn High School in Palo Alto.

The Endurance Run is a re-creation of the early 1900's cross country automobile races showing the public the reliability, speed, and endurance of the automobile. Many of the very early races were production cars, but soon mechanically inclined young men were buying used cars and stripping them down to the frame, buying racing bodies for cars or making their own, adding early speed equipment, and modifying engines. Most of the early race cars were driven by a driver who had a riding mechanic.

Ford entered the 1909 New York to Seattle Transcontinental Race with two Model T speedsters. It was a grueling 23-day race for man and machine with one of the Model T's reaching Seattle first. It was a time when roads were nearly nonexistent, mostly dirt trails, no gas stations, repair shops, motels, or roadside restaurants.

This year's event will cover approximately 150 miles of back roads in San Benito and Monterey counties. It runs as a rally with check points along the route that the drivers must stop at. So the winner isn't the fastest car, but the one that arrives at the finish closest to a pre-determined time, finishing at Tiffany Ford for awards and a big BBQ.

The race kicks off on Fifth Street between Monterey and San Benito streets. The green flag will drop at 8:30 a.m. on June 17 after the presentation of the colors, the playing of the National Anthem, and "Gentlemen start your engines."