The other Best of Show award at Amelia this year was designated as the Concours d’Sport, an award to go to the best racing car on the field that day. I wasn’t sure what had the chops to sway the judges this year. While I was taking pictures along a wall during the awards ceremony, this blue 1958 Scarab destroyed my eardrums and stole my attention for a little while. Little did I know until I saw it waiting on the side that it was to recieve a Best of Show. My eardrums were again destroyed, but this time, I was fine with it. This little Scarab deserved its win and looked head and shoulders above much of the other racers in the field this year. Enjoy the photos.
We attended the 2014 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance last weekend and were absolutely blown away by the quality of the cars that were present. This post is a highlight feature on the pre-1950 era cars that caught my eye at the show. The post-1950 era highlights will go up on Friday and there are many more individual features to come.
While on a mafia history tour of what used to be Little Italy, I got temporarily distracted by this post-apocalyptic 1968 Dodge Dart GTS 383 hardtop. Not only was it a GTS, but it was marked as (and the VIN tag corroborated) a 383ci V8 equipped car, so I felt obligated to stop and take a shot of it before we moved to the next set of streets. This particular area of Manhattan used to be a hotbed for Mafia activity, featuring murders, speakeasies, alcohol stowaways, and plenty of other illicit activities. The area’s been cleaned up over the years but near where this car was parked is the KGB bar, one of only a select few speakeasies still operating in Lower Manhattan, on West 4th Street near 1st Avenue.
A couple of weeks ago, I spent the weekend in Boston visiting my cousin and her husband. While I was up there, I revisited the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline just outside of town. I hadn’t been there in more than 4 years, so I was excited to come back and see what had changed. Here is a selection of what was at the museum at the time I was there, including a 1953 Corvette, a prewar Bugatti four-door cabriolet in beautiful shape, a Mercer runabout, a selection of classic racers from the 50s and 60s, and a pristine Corvette Stingray in the back room. The museum has a smorgasbord of prewar cars on display both upstairs and in the family’s personal collection, located in the basement. This is definitely a great place to go if you like smaller car museums with an eclectic and ever-changing display set. Enjoy the photos. Continue reading Presenting a selection from the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, MA.→
Most cars of the Fifties are celebrated after 1955 or so, with some exceptions. The 1954 Cadillacs, in my opinion, get a bit overlooked by the elegant 1953 models and the ostentatious, outrageous late Fifties cars, because they’re in that bridge year between the introductory Eldorado, and the Fab Fifties era. This black one happens to be a very straight and shined-up Series 62 convertible, and in its tuxedo over red combination, it looks great here on the Scarsdale street corner. Just a few feet away sat this breathtaking soft-yellow 1955 Packard Four Hundred hardtop–a car overlooked because of the famous Packard Caribbean. Well, I decided not to overlook either of the two, and now, nor will any of you. Enjoy the photos. Continue reading 1954 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible and 1955 Packard Four Hundred Hardtop at the Scarsdale Concours→
I found this drag-prepped Chevy Nova sitting at a shop near where I work. It looked really cool so I snapped a photo of it. It has what seem to be bullet holes in its driver side door, and that just raises so many questions. Apparently this car beat someone so badly that they had nothing left to do but try and shoot it dead.
We want to throw out a big congratulations to Hennessey Performance Engineering on their record-setting, 270mph run in the Venom GT. The run was doused with an extra helping of awesome because it was held at the Kennedy Space Center’s 3.2 mile runway… you cannot get more ‘Murica if you tried!
For those unfamiliar, the Hennessey Venom GT is a million dollar hypercar produced in very limited numbers by Hennessey Performance Engineering in Texas. It is powered by a twin turbocharged V8 that makes 1244hp, and only runs on the finest concoction of Freedom and Liberty that money can buy. Computers have said all along that the Venom GT should be able to hit the 270mph mark, but now it has been definitively proven. In fact, Hennessey said that the Venom GT was still gaining 1mph second when it passed 270mph, and that means 280mph could be a possibility with another couple miles of straight, flat tarmac.
Now, they weren’t able to do a conformation run in the opposite direction, so the record doesn’t stand for the Guiness Book of World Records, but let’s all be real here, people, 270mph is 270mph. The Venom GT is now officially the fastest production car on Earth, at least for the time being, so let’s all give credit where credit is due.
I know I have been critical of the Venom GT in the past, and I still am to this day. There is no denying its awesome performance, though, and the scale of Hennessey Performance Engineering’s achievement. For all intents and purposes, what has happened here is a David and Goliath scenario. A small performance shop in Texas has succeeded in toppling the technological masterpiece, and flagship, of one of the largest automotive corporations in the world, Volkswagen, despite their comparatively unlimited resources.
The original Mustang is a shape that’s known worldwide as one of the first affordable sports coupes that was accessible to everyone. I’ve always been a fan of the first generation model, ever since I helped a friend of mine tear down a moribund ’66 model in his garage as a kid. This black 1966 model is a hardtop–not the most desirable body style, but it was clean and very straight. This one’s fitted with all the right accouterments from the era, including the imitation mag wheels, red line tires, a black vinyl roof, and red stripes to set off that raven-black paint. The interior looked strong as well, with full instrumentation, a four-speed manual transmission, and a full center console with the top-line trim. I’m always a fan of the early Mustangs that have been kept clean and have been well-looked-after, and this one was a great example of what I like to see. Enjoy the photos. Continue reading 1966 Ford Mustang GT Coupe at the Radnor Hunt Concours, 2013→
Raymond Leowy is a name known very well by a lot of car enthusiasts. He penned, among others, the Studebaker Avanti, the bullet-nose Studebaker Commander and Champion of the postwar era, the 1946 Lincoln Continental, the Hillman Minx, and the Sunbeam Alpine roadster. He had an eye for style and flair, and also was the pencil behind plenty of contemporary designs of today, including even the US Postal Service logo still in use. However, in 1941, he bought a brand-new Lincoln Continental coupe and had it sent off to the coachbuilder Durham for modifications. By the time the craftsmen at Durham were finished with the Lincoln, it looked strikingly different. The grille and hood were reshaped, the front fenders were shortened, and the bumpers were customized up front. At the rear, a fin was added in the center, and an opera window and plexiglass roof were added to the top. It was, in the end, quite a unique Continental and I had a hard time ignoring it when it was sitting at the entrance of the show this year. Enjoy the pictures.
The Corvette has always been an American hero, able to rival Porsches and whatnot in lap times and speed. However, by almost all counts, the Corvette was never on the same level in terms of its driving experience, when compared to the Europeans. The Chevrolet C7 Corvette Stingray is probably the best Vette yet in terms of driving dynamics, so Autocar decided to see how it stacked up directly to its fiercest rivals from across the pond.
Keep in mind, British journalists, especially, tend to be heavy critics of Corvettes. Maybe they feel threatened by such a great American icon, I mean, the Vette is basically “the George Washington of cars”, and that might bring up some of their cultural bad memories from the late 1700s. Either way, all pokes aside, the Brits seem to like the C7 Stingray quite a lot, and it seems it is finally able to take on the Europeans on their own turf.
Enjoy, and let us know what you think in the comments.
It’s pretty clear that I hold anything with the Cord name in a good amount of regard. They were innovators in the 1930s and were tragically out of business by 1938. The 812 was one of the most advanced cars they’d ever made, right before the demise of the company. The 812 included a supercharged straight-8 by Lycoming hooked up to a semi-automatic transmission, as well as a fully independent front suspension with front-wheel-drive–a first for anything built in America. This was also the very first car from the States to utilize concealed headlights, which could be raised by a set of interior knobs. Many other features, including a set of variable speed wipers and a concealed fuel filler, were also either not seen previously on other cars, or had not been a common feature at the time. Unfortunately, Cord did not produce many and was not able to sell them well during the Depression, despite intense initial interest. This butter-yellow convertible looked striking against the rolling hills and leafy trees of Malvern, Pennsylvania. Enjoy the photos. Continue reading 1937 Cord 812 at the Radnor Hunt Concours, 2013→
At Radnor this year, there was more than just one Chrysler Town and Country. While I was taken aback by the handsome red sedan we featured previously, it was hard to ignore the Dove Gray example parked right next to it. This one is also a 1947 model, but restored in 2005. The combination of the gray paint and red interior, along with a red top, looked incredible on the field under the tree. The wood trim had a shine that no other wood-paneled car at the Concours was capable of matching that day. Enjoy the photos. Continue reading 1947 Chrysler Town and Country Convertible at the 2013 Radnor Hunt Concours→
Mind Over Motor 