Yvette VanDerBrink with her 1941 Ford in Hardwick, Minn. Greg Latza for The Wall Street Journal

Yvette VanDerBrink of Hardwick, Minn., is one of the few female auctioneers in the Midwest. She talks up her favorite car, as told to Angela Chen:

We own about 20 cars, but one of our favorites is a two-seat 1941 Ford Custom Deluxe that we've had for about seven years. It's an old hot rod and it's just classy. It's a gangster car.

I was selling the car. Nobody was interested and I said, 'Folks, I'm going to buy.' And I bid, and people started bidding against me and I realized my husband was bidding. I quit, but he bid against everyone and he was the one who got it. He has been working slowly on it for about three years now. He made his own body panels out of a metal Army barrel—used a torch to cut and mold them, pounded them, cut them, made his own patterns. He also upgraded the motor.

An Auctioneer's 'Gangster Car'

Yvette VanDerBrink, along with husband, Steve, and son Johnathan, enjoy her 1941 Ford at their Hardwick, Minn., farm.

I live in the country in southwest Minnesota, and my husband and I will take that car out for long drives. I love watching him smoke cigars and wear his Ray-Bans and we just drive around and talk. There's no A.C., no radio, big seats. It'll glide slow enough that you can see rabbits and cats and avoid the gophers running in a ditch, and then go 70 miles an hour. Cars like that remind you of different times when life was a lot slower.

It's our past that keeps us going and keeps us grounded, so that to me is why these old vehicles and old tractors are still important to our history.

Write to Angela Chen at Angela.Chen@wsj.com