CAL POLY - One of America's very first cars is here on the Central Coast and today it pulled up alongside a car of the future.
A 100-year-old Ford Model T, on a 1,200 mile journey from Phoenix to Eureka, stopped off at Cal Poly today.
Dozens of people checked out the Model T, which was parked next to one of Cal Poly's award-winning supermileage cars.
The Model T gets about 17 miles to the gallon.
The supermileage car gets more then 2,700 miles to the gallon.
"A hundred years ago, I believe, it was the first car off the line for Ford," said Ann Peters of the Cal Poly Supermileage Team. "Hopefully we are transitioning to cars like our supermileage car that Ford can produce some day."
Cal Poly engineering alum Trevor Harper is making the same trip his great-grandfather made 100 years ago in a Model T, when he left Arizona to start a Ford dealership in Eureka.
Harper now runs the family dealership.
"The biggest challenge for this trip is traffic," said Trevor Harper of Harper Motors. "We go about 40 miles an hour. Traffic, of course, is going 65 plus."
Cal Poly's supermileage team is currently working on two cars for this year's Shell Eco Marathon.
The team's goal is to travel from New York to Los Angeles on a single tank of gas.
