Just Cool Cars: '30 Ruxton led in front-wheel drive
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — As one of the first cars with front-wheel drive, you'd think a Ruxton might be a car brand that would be a little better known.
While the name may puzzle most motorists, it's well known to Cliff and Dede Ernst of Hendersonville, Tenn., who showed off their blue 1930 Ruxton roadster at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance here last summer.
It's certainly a rare car. Cliff says 96 of them were built, and 19 survive. But it was the car's beauty, not just its rarity, that caught the couple's eyes. "We saw the car and just liked it," he explains.
When we caught up with the Ernsts, they had just taken a long drive in the car near the famed golf-course resort here. It was, as they said, an 85-mile journey in an 84-year-old car.
"it was a little terrifying at first," Dede admitted, especially when it came to lack of seat belts. But she says she, too, loves the car and the fun that they had with it — drive and all.