Margaret Dunning, a woman of 102, is making headlines after her spirited appearance at a car show in Canton, Ohio, accompanied by her 82-year-old car that she still happily and energetically maintains, and has restored to nearly-mint condition.
Dunning attended the show with her 1930 Packard 740 Roadster that she purchased in 1949 and has since fully restored, and gleefully admitted that she still changes the car’s oil and spark plugs all by herself. The 102-year-old motor-head does all the upkeep on her car herself, and has kept it up for the 63 years she’s owned it in an effort to save some money, reports MSN .
“I love the old cars,” Dunning beamed to the Akron Beacon Journal . “I love the smell of gasoline. It runs in my veins.”
In the personal interest piece, Dunning is described as a “hoot” and as “witty, engaging and razor sharp.” She joked at one point about the “lead in my feet,” referencing the number of speeding tickets she’s racked up over the years. “It disturbs the policemen very badly, but it doesn’t bother me at all,” she admits.
Though she owns several other collector cars, she admits that the Packard is by far her favorite, even if she doesn’t get the chance to drive it much anymore.
“The lines of a Packard car are very artistic as far as I’m concerned. My family drove Packards, and I was very proud of the fact. I guess I got indoctrinated,” she says.
Dunning is also one of those “millionaires next door” you always hear of, having had successful careers in both banking and retail, and never marrying.
“I’ve had a very interesting life in this old world,” she says. “My mother kept telling me what a beautiful old world this is, and as I gain a few years, I realize what she was talking about, because each year I see more beauty in the things that I observe.”