Steve Campa and his wife, Esther, own two 1920 Model Ts. One is a huckster truck and the other is a speedster. The club hasn't seen the speedster much yet because it was only recently acquired and is still in the process of being restored, but most of us would recognize his distinctive white truck in a flash. He acquired it in the 1970s from an uncle who owned quite a few Ts. He and his father “traded” it for labor on the uncle’s collection, which is a pretty neat way to get started in the T hobby. The truck was, to quote Steve, a “basket case” when he got it. You would not think that now to look at it, that’s for sure.

Steve was born and raised in San Antonio. He graduated from Harlandale High School. He is the fleet manager for SAWS, the San Antonio Water System, with responsibility for around 1,400 vehicles. It was there that he met TFOT stalwart Mike Mackechney, who also works for SAWS. Mike likes to drive his 1926 Touring Car to work which led to conversations about Steve’s vehicle. It took a year for Mike to persuade Steve to come join us. Fortunately we must have been on our best behavior that day and he decided that we were not so bad after all and joined. Since then we have had the pleasure of seeing Steve and Esther at any number of club activities, where their company is always, always, welcome.

Steve has kept his Huckster truck pretty much all original. Even though it is a 1920 Model, he still uses the hand crank to start it. It will be interesting to see how the Speedster turns out. He has only had it since 2010 and is still pondering all the many, period correct variations that these modified-by-definition racing cars have available.

Steve is one of those quiet but extremely capable men we so often find in the Model T world. It takes a strong character to decide to own, restore, maintain and drive a Model T in the 21st century. All of us are, to a certain extent, a breed apart. Steve has numerous other quite demanding hobbies as well. He delights in live steam trains, owning and operating a phenomenal 7.5 inch gauge locomotive that he brought with him to our last Model T show at the Texas Transportation Museum. He built a set of tracks in his large back yard in Floresville to operate it on. Steve also builds and operates model boats and airplanes. He enjoys restoring old “hit and miss” agricultural motors, and, if that was not enough fun for one guy, he also builds and operates model circuses, a hobby he shared with his father.

Being a nuts and bolts kind of guy, some of Steve’s favorite TFOT activities are the perhaps too infrequent technical sessions, where club members share their knowledge and experience with restoring and repairing Model Ts. But that does not mean he does not enjoy our tours and cruises. The Campa’s huckster truck always looks great at our annual shows and visitors and tourists love seeing it at San Antonio’s historic missions during our tours.