MIchael T. Lynch: Art of the Car, 2016

Story by Michael T. Lynch

The Art of the Car Concours celebrated its 10th Edition this year. Since the show’s inception, it has donated well over one million dollars to the Kansas City Art Institute Scholarship Fund. At a time when student debt has surpassed consumer debt, the event is to be complimented for doing its part to ease the burden.

The weekend’s festivities began with Saturday morning’s traditional Entrants’ Breakfast at Tivol, Kansas City’s leading jeweler, located on the Country Club Plaza, which was the first auto-centric shopping area in the country. The Plaza was built in 1927 and takes its architectural theme from Seville, Spain. The block was closed and many entrants brought their show cars, allowing the public to get a free preview of the leading Concours between the two coasts.

That afternoon, the Meet the Legends panel discussion took place. The theme was “Total Performance – Powered by Ford.” This referenced Ford’s decade-long involvement in auto racing from the early 1960s, during which they competed in the world’s greatest auto racing series around the world. No manufacturer, before or since, has ever engaged in such an expensive and all-encompassing racing, promotional and advertising program. During the period, Fords won at the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Indianapolis 500, and participated in many other racing disciplines including NASCAR, Formula 1, drag racing and international rallying.

After an overview of the above subject in some detail, the panel concentrated on Carroll Shelby’s three-year battle with Ferrari that culminated in Shelby Cobras winning the World Sports Car Manufacturer’s Championship in 1965. The panel was certainly qualified to talk about the subject. It included Peter Brock, who was Shelby’s first employee and designed the Cobra Daytona Coupe that won the Championship, as well as many other race and concept cars; Bob Bondurant, who drove one of the Daytona Coupes at Reims, France, scoring the points that clinched the Championship for Cobra; Pat Bondurant, President of the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving; Steve Volk, President of the Shelby American Collection, a museum in Boulder, CO that has the largest collection of significant Shelby cars and memorabilia in the world; and Allen Grant, who was a driver on the Cobra team during the Championship year.

The stories were great. Bondurant told of at least two instances of driving over 150 mph on normal two-lane French roads with civilian traffic while trying to make up time between stages in the Tour de France. Others remember Reims 1965, where Jo Schlesser was called into the pits and lectured on team orders, after which his wife threw a glass of wine on the Cobra team manager. Other similar stories shed light on the more relaxed atmosphere in top line racing in the 1960s. The audience couldn’t get enough, and by the time they finished their question and answer session, the panelists had been on the dais for over two hours.

The next day the Art of the Car Concours took place on the grounds of the Kansas City Art Institute. The event has been lucky never having had a problem with the weather, but the local TV stations made it sound like that might end this year.

The public poured in nonetheless and was treated to an incredible variety of vehicles, including pedal cars, trucks, racing cars and motorcycles. There was no Unimog this year, but that was more than made up for by the 11:16 scale Chevrolet shown below.

The weather kept threatening and there were alerts about severe weather including hailstorms heading in the direction of the show field. It all had a happy ending when the field was cleared about a half hour before the scheduled time. No entrant reported encountering any rain, let alone hail, on the way home. The Art of the Car Concours continues to improve yearly.

Below are just a few vehicles from the outstanding field.

The theme of the Art of the Car Concours feature this year was “Total Performance – Powered by Ford”, celebrating Ford’s 50th anniversary win at both Le Mans and the Sports Car World Championship. However, the entry encompassed Ford racers of every generation. This is John Hollansworth’s replica of Ted Horn’s 1935 Miller-Ford. Built for the 1930s “Junk Formula,” which encouraged the use of passenger car components, Harry Miller created this sleek chassis that was powered by a flathead Ford V-8. Unusual for the day, the Miller has front-wheel drive. It won the Leon Miller Award.

Hagerty Insurance has a wonderful youth judging program to create new generations of connoisseurs. Designed for young people aged 8 to 14, the youth judges are introduced to owners who describe the historical significance of their cars as well as their individual histories. After working with scoring sheets, the judges make their choices and an award is given to the winner. The Art of the Car has always encouraged young people to be part of the event and those under sixteen are admitted free. There were over 500 of them this year. The Concours also has multigenerational awards where different generations of families bring multiple cars.

Bob Bondurant drew a crowd when he started the engine in the Cobra Daytona Coupe on the show field. Although the Cobra roadsters had more power than the Ferrari competition, their aerodynamics put the cars at a disadvantage on the faster European courses like Spa and Monza. Shelby put Peter Brock to work on a solution – a coupe based on the theories of German aerodynamicist Wunibald Kamm. When Shelby saw the car come together, he wasn’t so sure about the decision. This car was the second coupe built, and won the GT Class at Le Mans on its first outing. It continued its winning ways at Goodwood in 1964 and Sebring and Oulton Park in 1965. On July 4th, 1965, Bob Bondurant and Jo Schlesser drove a sister car to score the points that allowed the Cobra Team to win the Sports Car World Championship.

Peter Boyle’s Isotta Fraschini 8A SS chassis was built in Italy and delivered to LeBaron in the U.S. where it was fitted with a convertible coupe body with a single rumble seat. It was first displayed at the 1928 New York Auto Show, where it caught the attention of aviation pioneer Harry Williams and his wife, actress Helen Marguerite Clark, whose looks inspired Walt Disney’s original Snow White. Williams, who co-founded the Wedell-Williams Aviation Company, which produced racing airplanes and brought airmail and passenger services to the Southeast, purchased the car at the show despite a price of over $20,000.

Like most pilots, Williams liked to go fast. One story is that Williams received a $10 fine for speeding through a small Louisiana town. When he appeared in court, Williams reportedly peeled a $20 bill from his roll, placed it on the table and said, “Here’s $20, now don’t bother me on the way back.”

Williams was killed in a 1936 plane crash that also claimed the life of a company test pilot. By the time of his death, his partners in the aviation company had also died in aviation accidents, and sole control of the company fell to Helen Marguerite Clark. With little interest in running her husband’s company, Clark promptly sold the business to Eastern Air Lines, owned by World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker. The Isotta Fraschini vanished from public view for decades before being restored by Boyle and winning an award at the Pebble Beach Concours in 2007. At the Art of the Car Concours, it won the Tivol Jewel of a Car Award.

Ferrari made several different models that carried the 250 GT designation. Historians have named them so people know which version they are talking about. This style 250 GT is called a Tour de France, having won the great French event in 1956-7-8. Fred Fischer’s car was second in its namesake race in 1957, and took another second at the Six Hours of Auvergne in 1958. It has been in the Fischer family since 1971.

Steve Volk brought this Cobra FIA roadster from his Shelby American Museum in Boulder CO. It was one of five 289 FIA roadsters, the last built and one of two left in existence today. These cars, along with six Cobra Daytona coupes, are credited with winning the World Manufacturer’s Championship in 1965, a first for an American company. This car has the distinction of being the only roadster to score championship points in both 1964 and 1965. It won at Spa, the Schauinsland hillclimb and the Rossfeld hillclimb in 1964, and at Oulton Park and Rossfeld again in 1965. It remains as it was the day it won its last race. Even the tires are original. Bob Bondurant is seen here starting the car at the Art of the Car Concours. Moments later he was surrounded by spectators. It won a Chairman’s Award.

After winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966 and 1967, Ford dropped out of road racing to focus on NASCAR, Indy cars and the Can-Am series. In England, John Wyer built three lightweight Ford GT40s which used the name Mirage. This car was the first built, and won both the Spa 1000 Kilometers in 1967 and the Monza 1000 Kilometers in 1968. It was later used as a camera car when Steve McQueen made the movie Le Mans. It has been converted back to its 1968 specification and was brought by the Larry H. Miller Collection.

The Mullin Automotive Museum’s 1929 Bugatti Type 43/44 Roadster Luxe began as a Type 43 race car and competed in Ireland’s 1929 Tourist Trophy Race. After it was out-powered by the Mercedes-Benz, the car was delivered to Carrosserie Figoni where the factory body was removed. It was replaced with this Figoni-designed open body. The car passed through three owners and disappeared from the official record. Dr. W. Granoff discovered it in a junkyard in 1957. The car was completely restored and a Type 44 engine was installed in 1959. The Mullin Automotive Museum purchased the car in 2010 and restored it to this condition. It won a Chairman’s Award.

A big part of Ford’s Total Performance program in the 1960s was to win the Indianapolis 500. After a Lotus-Ford finished a close second in 1963, they returned in 1964 with this Lotus 34. In 1963, Ford had used a pushrod passenger car-based engine, but this one has a purpose-built, four-camshaft racing engine. Note the offset suspension designed to keep the car’s weight as close as possible to the inside of the Speedway’s four turns. It may have been an elegant engineering solution, but it wasn’t that effective. The long suspension side put more drag on the car than the short side, causing the car to pull to the right. Clark still took the pole in qualifying, but tire failure took him out of the race. The third try in 1965 resulted in a win for Clark in a Lotus-Ford 38. The Lotus 34 was at the Art of the Car Concours courtesy of the Hall of Fame Museum at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

With all the multi-million dollar cars on the field, this one drew as much attention as any. It is Gene Tweedy’s 11/16th scale 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air. Tweedy built it himself, working with his mentor, Ernie Adams, who had done several similar projects before creating the racing Dwarf Car concept.

In 1966, Carroll Shelby wanted to build a sports racer for the Can-Am Challenge series, designed by Peter Brock. Shel asked Alejandro de Tomaso in Italy to design and build a 427-cubic-inch V-8 racing engine that would be smaller and lighter than Ford’s existing 427. De Tomaso had been developing a backbone chassis with a transaxle, and he suggested it would be perfect for the car. Shelby was not happy with the pace of the project and sent Brock to Italy to troubleshoot. Brock didn’t spend much time at the De Tomaso factory but instead worked with Carrozzeria Fantuzzi, the coachbuilder who was creating the body. Peter Brock has called the P70 one of his favorite designs, saying, “…it expressed the freedom to innovate that was so typical of the Can-Am rules… there were none! Also, it was the first time I got to complete the adjustable rear wing concept, which I had planned for the Daytona Coupe. When I went to Italy to build the P70, there was no one to counter my wishes and the car got built exactly like I wanted. It’s still one of the last great pieces of hand-built Modenese automotive art.” Shelby pulled the plug on the project but De Tomaso later used a variant of the backbone chassis for the Mongoose and Pantera. The P70, now powered by a Gurney-Weslake V-8, was given a ground-up restoration in 2008. It was presented by Mark Moshayedi and won the Petersen Manufacturing Ideas on the Move Award.

The Art of the Car Concours always has a nice selection of motorcycles. This year was no exception and Bill Doll’s Moto Guzzi Astore won the Entrant’s Choice Award. These were built between 1949 and 1953 and set the standard for Grand Touring bikes of the time. It features telescopic dampers in front and hydraulic dampers in the rear. The handlebars have height adjustment levers. The engine is a 500 cc single with a light alloy cylinder head and Dell’orto carburetor, with a four speed gearbox.

There is no judging at the Art of the Car Concours. Awards are chosen by the organizers, sponsors, Art Institute personnel or the participants in the Meet the Legends panel. Gordon Logan’s Auburn 852 S/C Boattail Speedster won People’s Choice as well as the Gatsby Award. This was as close as you could get to an American sports car in the era between the wars. These cars have varying body styles and this is the best one I’ve ever seen, and has the trophies to prove it. A true prewar Grand Classic.