Tom Price’s Ferrari 250 GTO is seen at Laguna Seca. It will be on the lawn at the first Marin Sonoma Concours d’Elegance on May 17. This car won the Dakar 12 Hours in 1962 and also had GT class wins at Spa, the Nurburgring, Reims, Montlhery and the Mount Ventoux hillclimb.
Marin Sonoma Concours Ignores Gloom and Doom
By Michael T. Lynch
If automotive enthusiasm is a leading indicator, then the stock market may be due for a turnaround. Marin County California collector Charlie Goodman will launch the Marin Sonoma Concours d’Elegance on May 17. Goodman is not only undeterred by the present financial situation, but he is celebrating the 1929 crash by allowing free entry to cars of that model year, which will be grouped in a special display. We hope this isn’t tempting fate.
The grounds of the Marin County Civic Center will host the Marin Sonoma Concours d’Elegance. This magnificent building is the work of the Master, Frank Lloyd Wright. Begun in 1957, it was finished in 1960, a year after the architect’s death, making it his last major work. One of the outlying structures is a Post Office, Wright’s only Federal commission. The conours cars will have some design competition.
The setting will be Frank Lloyd Wright’s stunning Marin County Civic Center, a venue that includes the Wright masterpiece as well as a lagoon, ponds and undulating lawns. This will be a properly juried event with club experts judging their own marques.
Goodman enjoys the concours circuit, but his cars are no trailer queens – all are used as occasional daily drivers. In keeping with this philosophy, activities will begin Saturday morning with The Drive, an 80-mile tour, which will begin in Sausalito, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Participants will head for West Marin County, one of the most scenic areas in the country, home of the Point Reyes National Seashore. Having covered tens of thousand of miles in the area on machinery as varied as an OSCA MT 4 and a Velocette Thruxton, the author can vouch for the challenge of the roads. West Marin is also known for artisan cheeses, meats and produce, which are shipped to restaurants and consumers worldwide. The Drive will include a catered luncheon at the Marin French Cheese Company, the oldest cheese producer in the country, making 35 varieties on the premises. The site is a bucolic duck pond within the property’s 700 acres.
Carroll Shelby wanted to built an American V-8 sports car long before the Cobra. He got fellow Texan racers and Chevrolet dealers, Jim Hall and Gary McLaughlin to finance three 1959 Corvettes which were then bodied by Sergio Scaglietti in Modena. General Motors ultimately nixed the deal and Shelby took the Cobra idea to Ford five years later. The pictured car, one of the three, is entered for the Marin Sonoma Concours.
That evening the Hospice By The Bay will present Flappers and Fedoras, a gala reception at the nearby Embassy Suites.
The field will be varied, with 21 classes including one for motorcycles. Besides the 1929 cars, other special displays will accommodate Supercars, Cars of the Stars and Alternative Fuel Vehicles. Considering the quality of the entry, admission is a bargain at $15, $10 for seniors, with children under 16 free.
In addition, The Academy of Art University will enter at least one car. This San Francisco institution, founded as a fine arts school in 1929, now provides instruction in all art forms from advertising to new media. Over the last decade the school has beefed up its industrial design department and it school of transportation design has sent graduates to manufacturers like General Motors and Mazda.
The silverware is brought out for The Academy of Art University’s 1934 Cadillac 452D V-16 Aerodynamic Coupe. This was an early Harley Earl design on one of the greatest classic Cadillac chassis. The car is entered for the inaugural Marin Sonoma Concours.
Credit: Academy of Art University
To facilitate the teaching of automobile design, the school maintains a large collection of classic and modern cars representing the best in design and engineering so students can experience them in the metal rather than from textbooks. The university shares these treasures with the public by showing them at Concours and museum exhibits nationwide.
Proceeds from the 2009 Marin Sonoma Concours d’ Elegance will benefit Hospice By The Bay. This almost 35-year old non-profit was the first West Coast hospice and provides hospice and palliative care services for patients and their caregivers during the final stages of life. Donations help the organization serve over 300 patients and their families each day. To learn more or make a donation, go to: http://www.hospicebythebay.org For further information on the concours itself, visit http://marinsonomaconcours.org
I am afraid that Michael Lynch’s admiration for Carroll Shelby makes him go overboard a bit when it comes to Ol’ Shel’s involvement with the Scaglietti Corvettes. It was essentially Gary Laughlin’s project, who financed the construction of the three cars. Shelby committed to buying one, but in the end he did not have the money. Shelby’s name recognition did help convincing Ed Cole to break three chassis off the St. Louis production line. Laughlin kept one, Lloyd Smith of Houston got the second while Jim Hall ended up with the third, much to his disghust the only automatic. By the way, Gary hated the handling of his car.