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brandes elitch

Brandes Elitch at The Quail

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Story by Brandes Elitch
Photos by Petya Elitch

The Monterey weekend is so overwhelming that it is impossible to capture more than a small part of it here. Two reasonable and sophisticated car collectors might come back with two completely different versions of what they saw that mattered to them, and in listening to them you would wonder if they were in the same place. All of us have our biases and predilections, and oftentimes we just search out what we already favor, without being distracted by something new. This is human nature.
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Brandes Elitch at Concorso Italiano

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When you said that your Lamborghini could pull like a tractor, I had no idea....

Story by Brandes Elitch
Photos by Petya Elitch

If you have never attended the Monterey Car Week then you need to know that there are two basic rules: you can’t see everything, so don’t try, and – as we used to say in the Army – “Move with a purpose.”

There are years when I have skipped the races at Laguna Seca, and I stopped going to Pebble Beach after twenty plus years of regular attendance. But one event I don’t miss is the Concorso Italiano – the largest Italian car show in the world.

Let me point out why this is not happening in Italy. [Read more…] about Brandes Elitch at Concorso Italiano

The Exner Renwal Revival Cars of 1964

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Catalog courtesy Peter Larsen.

By Brandes Elitch
Photos courtesy of http://www.madle.org/

If you were a teenager in the 1960’s, as I was, you will remember that Renwal made a series of plastic 1/25 scale model car kits of the Revival Cars. Renwal Products was located in Mineola, NY. I have the ’66 Packard model. The box art says, “Modern Version of a Great Classic Car-Advance Showing.” There was even a slot car version, at least according to the assembly instructions. This is the story behind the Exner Revival cars.

In December of 1963 Esquire magazine published an article under the heading “Flights of Fancy.” It was titled “Introducing the 1964 Duesenberg, Packard, Stutz, and Mercer!” and written by Diana Bartley. It describes how the concept of the Exner Revival Classics, in particular the Mercer, Bugatti and Duesenberg designed by Exner with bodies constructed by Ghia and Sibona & Basano was brought to Exner.

Bartley sets the stage:

“Granted that American car design now ranges from acceptable to handsome, still, one of the ways our cars aren’t better than they used to be is that they all tend to look alike…anyone familiar with the individuality of so many of the great American cars of the past does notice – and cares.”

Bartley, who was a well-known automotive writer in the fifties and sixties, was one who cared. More than that, she had a notion and the opportunity to do something about it. She contacted Virgil Exner, recently retired VP of Styling at Chrysler. Exner and his son had a design consultancy business. Bartley broached the idea to them of creating sketches of a “modern parallel” to the great American cars which had what she called “immense marque identity,” but which no longer existed.

Choosing to work with the Exners was a stroke of genius for Bartley. As she relates, “…the Exners still believe that luxury-car buyers would welcome a return to the wide choice of luxury-car makes and models that was available almost until WWII.”

Exner Sr. commented, “We believe not only that greater stress should be put on the development and continuous refinement of a distinctive character for each marque, but also that the market for luxury cars can be greatly stimulated by some real effort to recapture some of the elegance and originality which make many of the old cars so interesting and exciting to us yet today.”

Bartley further comments, “You might think that the Exners are the theorizers…But they are more than that. They’re the doers.” Responding to her guidance, they actually produced four modern versions of the cars in the title for 1964. In creating the cars, Exner assumed that “… each manufacturer had pursued a policy of refinement and modernization of the cars’ identifying characteristics, and that each had decided to resume business after a thirty year lapse. What we are trying to do is to capture the spirit of the older car design and body type in a modern package.”

In the article, the Exners provided pencil sketches of the original cars and their modern version. There were four pencil sketches of each car, two of the front and two of the rear three-quarter views, along with their informative commentary. Above this was a 7-8 inch color rendering of the side view of each car.

Bugatti T101

The Exner Bugatti Revival on a T101 chassis. Now with General William Lyon.

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A Practical Guide to Monterey: Plan Ahead

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moretti

An original 1955 Moretti 1200 Gran Sport, owned by Mark Brinker. It is seeing rare cars like these that make going to Monterey worthwhile.

Photos by Brandes Elitch and Petya Elitch
Story by Brandes Elitch

“I am completely over the whole self-congratulatory Pebble Beach-Monterey Historics business.”
-Jack Baruth, 8/20/2012, writing in The Truth About Cars.com

Jack is one of my favorite writers, and after another Monterey weekend, you can understand what he means. However, you can avoid a lot of the hassle that accompanies these events with a little prior planning. Here are some suggestions, and no, it is not too soon to begin planning for next year.
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The Constant Search Part 3

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By Brandes Elitch

After reading the first two installments of The Constant Search, my friend Phil Goldberg sent me a seminal article on this subject. The author is Larry Givens, and it is a ten page article called Five Essays on Collecting. Mr. Givens collected mechanical musical instruments. His specialty was the Ampico reproducing piano. While he wrote about that, his focus, clarity, insights, and guidance are so incisive, relevant, and important, that I want to share them with you. We’ll begin with the four phases of collecting.

Phase One
“The early birds in any collecting field catch the fattest worms.”

This Alfa Romeo 2600 Zagato was purchased for the princely sum of $1800 with very low mileage and in excellent condition. But that was in 1971.

That’s because the item being collected (actually, “accumulated” is more accurate at this stage) has been replaced by something newer, and has thus been rendered nearly valueless. This has been the case with almost every car ever made. In many cases, even today, there is a 25 or 30 year cycle before the car is considered “collectible.” Many cars we consider desirable today went through a period when they were scrapped or selling for nominal amounts. Charles Chayne found a Bugatti Royale in a wrecking yard. [Read more…] about The Constant Search Part 3

The Constant Search Part II

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By Brandes Elitch

In the first half of this article, I discussed the early days of automotive literature. Back in the fifties and sixties, there was a dearth of books on automotive subjects. There were some iconic books that most people had on their bookshelves: Ken Purdy’s “Kings of the Road” would have to top that list. But the best automotive writers typically wrote magazine articles, not books. This changed, fortunately, and now it is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of newly published books. In this column, I will try to give you something to think about on this subject.

I was going to try to start with a “top ten” list of automotive books that everyone should have in their collection. Then, I read this wonderful quote from Ken Shubert, published in the Wild About Cars website (www.wildaboutcars.com). “We are not in this for the same reason. Sure, we all have “old cars” in common, but what we’re in it for starts to take different direction right from the start. We come from different walks of life. We have varying amounts of time, money, and energy. We have different ideas of what we want to do. We have different priorities. We have different skill levels. We like different eras, different makes, colors, options. Diversity is a good thing. What if we all wanted the same car, year, model, etc.?”

Diverse subjects but excellent topics and top notch authors...

So, there is no magic Top Ten list. You could focus on individual marques (hopefully, ones that are in your garage), racing, engineering, repair and restoration, racecar driver biographies and circuit/race histories, industry analysis, domestic v. foreign, not to mention the triumvirate that seem to dominate bookstores these days: of NASCAR, Harleys, and hot rods (no comment). If you asked a Brit, he would come up with names like Anthony Blight, William Boddy, Doug Nye, William Court Chris Nixon, and Jeremy Walton. A Frenchman or Italian would have different names. It’s a big world, car collecting.

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The Constant Search, Part 1

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By Brandes Elitch

Collecting Automotive Books and Literature

In 1982, a British book dealer named Charles Mortimer published a book called The Constant Search, Collecting Motoring and Motorcycling Books. Mortimer started his business during WWII, and spent half a century doing research for this book. At the time, he believed he had chronicled, in 40 different categories, everything published to that date on this subject. In addition to this bibliography, he included chapters on how to start a collection, whether to specialize or not, and how to store and display printed material. Mortimer started at the dawn of the automotive age, so this was an ambitious project. Today, I wonder if it would even be possible to chronicle all the published material on this subject in just the last 30 years. There weren’t a lot of new books about what we call “automobilia” in the sixties and seventies, but starting perhaps 20 years ago there has been a veritable explosion in published material. In this brief article, I would like to touch on some interesting aspects of automotive journalism and book collecting for the car enthusiast. My sense is that almost every car collector has also built up a book, periodical, manual, and literature collection, at least that has been my experience. [Read more…] about The Constant Search, Part 1

Mike Rabin: Discography

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By Brandes Elitch

The car collection hobby has a number of specialists who have devoted many years of their lives to a particular aspect of the restoration process, and it is safe to say that Mike Rabin’s name is synonymous with wheel discs. If he hasn’t made the one you want, just call him, and he will likely say, “I think I can make it – send me a picture.”
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Senna, Manso and a Dog

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By Brandes Elitch

Senna, the movie, won the World Cinema Audience Award in the documentary category at the Sundance Festival this year.


Recently, I saw the movie “Senna.” It must be in limited release, because only one theatre in my town of 150,000 souls is showing it, and even then for just a few showings. There is a great story here somewhere, but you wouldn’t know it from this film. The most basic elements of character development were missing. I didn’t know much more about Senna at the end of the film than at the beginning, not to mention what the distinguishing characteristics were in the cars and tracks he raced. [Read more…] about Senna, Manso and a Dog

Brandes Elitch on the Alfa 1900 SS Ghia

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Eltich found this rare one off Ghia Alfa at Concorso. But does it have a twin? Photo by Petya Elitch.

By Brandes Elitch
Color photos by Petya Elitch

“The early fifties were a magical time for all Italian coachbuilding, one of those magical moments when, for no particular reason…a series of favorable conjunctures determine the success…of an entire category. These were the years in which the Italian bodywork line was born…Mario Boano participated in Italian coachbuilding’s moment of grace with the Lancia Aurelia B20 and the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint. A third model worth remembering is the 1953 Alfa Romeo 1900 C coupe. This is a model which is understandably influenced by Ghia’s contemporary work with the Chrysler stylists.”
From “Ghia, Catalog Raisonne, by Valerio Moretti, Automobilia, 1991, Milan

While not as famous as Pininfarina or Giugiaro, Ghia has an illustrious history, employing designers such as Michelotti, Frua, Savonuzzi, Boano, Exner, Tjaarda, Giugiaro, Sapino, and others. Most American collectors would be surprised to learn that the contract for the Lancia B20 was personally given to Ghia by Gianni Lancia, although it is one of the best known of Pinin Farina’s products. Likewise, they would be surprised to learn that Alfa Romeo gave Ghia stylists Boano and Scaglione the brief for the Giulietta, which was then produced by Bertone. There are a lot of surprises in the Ghia Catalog Raisonne. On page 148 is a picture of a 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900 C, a straight side view. In this view, there are a few seemingly contradictory design elements, but there is no question that it is a compelling design. And then it was my turn to be surprised, when I saw this same car, now a show quality restoration, likely better than new, on the field at the Concorso Italiano during the Monterey Historics.

Elitch ponders the Ghia's influence on the 1964 Mustang and wonders what would Bob Cumberford think? Photo by Petya Elitch.

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Brandes Elitch on the Abarth 750 and Scorpion

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Abarth750 (inset), Pat Olsen with the 'Herbie' Scorpion Abarth. Large photo by Petya Elitch.

By Brandes Elitch
Photos by Petya Elitch

For the automotive enthusiast, there cannot be too many experiences like the Monterey Historics. The two Goodwood events might come close, but I draw a blank after that. I started attending in 1979, and I have never missed a year. For me, it’s just a three hour drive south, so as I see it, it would be negligent of me not to attend, right? Yet, even after all those years, the first few hours there are still a shock.

The most amazing cars are everywhere, on every street and in every driveway (the good citizens of Carmel-by-the-Cash-Register are happy to rent rooms in their homes for the visiting hordes). As my photographer/wife and I drove the detour through Seaside on our way to the Concorso, a small green car pulled up next to us at the light. She asked me what it was, and I turned to look at it. I started stammering, and she said, “What’s wrong?” I said, “Well, it looks like it looks like the Frazer Nash coupe that raced at LeMans in the 1950’s, but I’ve only seen it in photographs.” Here is a car that you could spend an hour looking at; the problem is that there is stuff like this everywhere! Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of activity, it is easy to see just the most outrageous and miss many other jewels that are not so obvious. In this column, I want to talk about two cars that you might have missed, but it would have been a shame if you did. They are Abarths.

Robert Strand's restored Abarth 750 Zagato. With all the right bits and pieces aside from a full leather interior. Photo by Pety Elitch.

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Brandes Elitch on Lancias at Concorso Italiano 2011

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The first of three featured cars selected from Concorso Italiano is this Lancia Flaminia Berlina. It was one of Batista Pininfarina's favorite designs; simple, elegant, refined and very attractive. Photo by Petya Elitch.

By Brandes Elitch
Photos by Petya Elitch

Last year I wrote a historical retrospective of the Concorso, which you can find at (click here). This is a large show – about 850 cars were displayed this year. Even in Italy, you wouldn’t get close to a thousand collector cars in one venue. If you are an Italian car collector (and if not, why are you reading this?) the Concorso should be on your list of things to do before you are permanently flagged off the course, so to speak. I would like to feature three cars which I found compelling, a purely arbitrary selection, and give you an overview of the event.

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