Iowa Couple Celebrates Buick Centennial By Retracing 1925 Trail Across Western U.S.

DETROIT - In 1925, Buick Motor Division celebrated the reliability and durability of its cars, as well as General Motors' worldwide service network, by sending a Buick around the world without a single driver, handing it off to sales operations in various countries. The Buick performed almost flawlessly.

This month (June 2003), an Iowa couple, who have already circled the globe in a vintage Buick, will celebrate Buick's 100th birthday by taking the same model of a 1925 Buick over part of the same route used in 1925. They will stop at Buick dealerships along the way to build awareness for Buick's big centennial celebration in Flint, Mich., July 23-27.

For Patrick W. Brooks, an attorney from Marshalltown, Iowa, and his wife, Mary, the drive from San Francisco, Calif., to Flint will seem like a jaunt to the grocery. The couple participated in the 1997 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge in their 1949 Buick Super "woody" wagon. They were stopped just short of Tibet by bad gasoline -- but made up for that when they successfully finished the "Around the World in 80 Days" new-millennium rally in the same car in 2000.

On the around-the-world trip, they drove their Buick through England, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, China, the United States (including Alaska), Canada, Morocco, Spain and back through France to London.

And Pat Brooks led a team that took a 2002 Buick Rendezvous to a silver medal in the "Inca Trail" trek of 55 days and 15,000 miles through South America in 2001.

Brooks' excitement for taking Buicks on long-distance adventure drives fueled his interest in the "Around the World" Buick of 1925. Several years ago he found an exact duplicate of the rare 1925 Buick Standard Model 25X (an export model with right-hand drive) that was used in the 1925 event. He wonders if it's the same car, since it is the only car like it he has found in this country. But none of the serial numbers of the original car have surfaced so he doesn't know.

Brooks also studied the 1925 route. The Buick left New York Dec. 20, 1924 for Liverpool, and then to London. Passed from dealer to dealer, the Buick toured Brussels, Paris, Marseilles, Port Said (Egypt), Cairo, Gaza, Jerusalem, Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Basra, Bombay, Calcutta and thereafter through Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and then to San Francisco. From there it went back to New York, with a stop in Buick's hometown of Flint. By the time of its arrival in New York City June 24, 1925, it had traveled 16,499 miles through 14 countries.

Brooks proposed to Buick that he and his wife drive the last part of the same route - from San Francisco to Flint -- this summer, using his 1925 Buick Standard Model 25X, and stopping at dealerships along the way.

They plan to arrive in Flint in time for Buick's big centennial celebration there July 23-27 (2003). The celebration is expected to draw nearly 2,000 vintage Buicks from across the United States and Canada, and people are registered to come from a dozen other countries.

Pat and Mary Brooks will begin to retrace the western U.S. portion of the 1925 trip on June 17 (2003) in San Francisco. They will use the 1949 Super woody wagon they took around the world in 2000 on the first part of the route - between San Francisco and their home in Marshalltown, Iowa. From Marshalltown, both the 1949 and 1925 Buicks will be driven to Flint in time for the start of the Buick centennial celebration.

Buick Motor Co. was incorporated while headquartered in Detroit on May 19, 1903, and moved to Flint later that year. In 1908, under the promotion of Flint carriage entrepreneur William C. Durant, Buick became the foundation for the creation of General Motors. Nearly 35 million Buicks later, the division was moved from Flint back to Detroit in 1998.

The Brooks' schedule:
June 17, San Francisco to Sacramento, Calif.
June 18, Sacramento to Carson City, Nev.
June 19, Carson City.
June 20, Carson City to Eureka, Nev.
June 21, Eureka to Jordon, Utah (Salt Lake City suburb)
June 22-23, Jordon, Utah
June 24, Jordon to Rock Springs, Wyo.
June 25, Rock Springs to Laramie, Wyo.
June 26, Laramie to Ft. Collins, Colo.
June 27, Ft. Collins to Loveland, Colo.
June 28, Loveland to Sterling, Colo.
June 29, Sterling, Colo.
June 30, Sterling to Sidney, Neb.
July 1, Sidney, Neb.
July 2, Sidney to Grand Island, Neb.
July 3, Grand Island to Fremont, Neb.
July 4, Fremont to Marshalltown, Iowa
July 5-13, Marshalltown, Iowa
July 14, Marshalltown to Cedar Rapids, Iowa
July 15, Cedar Rapids to Aurora, Ill.
July 16-17, Aurora, Ill.
July 18, Aurora to Benton Harbor, Mich.
July 19, Benton Harbor, Mich.
July 20, Benton Harbor to Lansing, Mich.
July 21, Lansing to Flint, Mich.
July 23-27, Flint, Mich. (Buick Centennial Event)


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