The Transcontinental Reliability Tours, sponsored by The Veteran Motor Car Club of America, and directed by Millard W. Newman of Florida, have been the greatest old car tours in modern antique car history. 1989 marked the 21st birthday of the tours: it was after the 1966 Glidden Tour in the Tampa Bay area that Millard Newman asked the group if they would be interested in taking a tour lasting as long as a month. The response was enthusiastic, and the 1968 Transcontinental Tour was born.

1968 was the sixtieth anniversary of the 1908 New York to Paris auto race. The 1908 race was international, and thirteen cars signed up. When the final lin-up took place in Times Square, however, there were only six entries: An American Thomas Flyer, a French Sizaire-Naudin, a German Protos, an Italian Zust, a French Motobloc and a French DeDion. The “Longest Auto Race” began in New York City and ran to Albany, Chicago, Seattle, by freighter to Japan, then to Vladivostok, across all of Siberia, Moscow, Berlin and then to the final destination, Paris. Thinking about such a trip today staggers the imagination. The logistics alone would stop most people in their tracks before they started.