The 43rd Annual Palo Alto Concours

In 1958, Fairchild Computer became the birthplace of what we call today “Silicon Valley,” and their alumni went on to create companies such as National Semiconductor, Intel, Apple, and on and on. The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center is legendary for the number of important inventions that it spawned, while ironically failing to exploit them commercially. A number of factors converged to make Palo Alto what it is today; the university of course, its history, its graduates, the large pool of engineers and scientists it drew, the enormous funding of the Department of Defense, the venture capitalists, and even the weather. As Timothy Sturgeon of MIT has written, “Perhaps the strongest thread that runs through the Valley, past and present, is the drive to ‘play’ with novel technology, which, when bolstered by an advanced engineering degree and channeled by astute management, created the powerhouse of today.”

The other thing about Palo Alto is that it has always been a locus of what used to be called ‘foreign cars.’ Unlike their brethren which were shipped to an East Coast Port Of Entry, the cars destined for a San Francisco or Los Angeles POE didn’t have to contend with any snow, slush, or even rain. They survived because, for the lucky owners, rust was something that happened to other people, people east of the Rockies. Palo Alto attracted the best and brightest engineering minds of the last 50 years, and not just Americans either. Today, half of the start-ups were founded by someone who was not a native American – it is a magnet for the rest of the engineering world. The other thing that Palo Alto created was money, lots of money, and some of this was used over the last 50 years to buy the cars that we collect today, and many of them are still living in local garages.

On June 28, 2009, on the campus of Stanford University, the Palo Alto Lions Club put roughly 525 cars on the show field for the local SCCA judges to inspect. I asked the Executive Director, Hal Schuette, about the logistics of putting on a show of this size. There were 70 judges for 32 classes, not counting the Ferrari and ACD clubs, which had their own judges, and not counting the 18 honorary judges.

There were 125 other cars in the car corral, and some of these were as interesting as anything on the show field. The final tally isn’t in yet, but the show is on track to raise about $100k for local charities, which is of course what the Lions do in the first place, and all the money went to charity, without paying an anonymous “consultant” to hype the show. It’s shocking to realize that some shows have been know to pay large sums of money to so-called “car guys” to help with the show, which reminds me of the timeless comment of “The Life of Riley” star William Bendix, “What a revoltin’ development this turned out to be!” However, Hal and his army of volunteers were all unpaid, including a crew of 35 car guys.

When Hal took over responsibility for the show last year, he brought in a computer expert, who electronified things such as the entry and acceptance letters, the newsletter, and even the window placards. This work used to be done manually, and it took hundreds of volunteer hours for a show this size. Hal is well equipped to run a the show; he previously ran another mammoth event called “Friendship Day,” once held on the grounds of the Stanford Linear Accelerator. That show would routinely attract a thousand cars which just showed up spontaneously every year. We all attend a multitude of car shows and we seldom think about just how much work it takes to make everything happen. If you stop and think about placing over 500 cars on a show field, and the work that is involved in getting the right cars and the right judges, and keeping 500 egomaniacs happy, well, you can readily appreciate what Hal went through.

This year the featured marques were not French and Italian cars. In fact, unfortunately there were only two French cars, a lone DS and the Delage from the S.F. Academy of Art. There weren’t many Italian cars either, but there were 2 which caused me to stop in my tracks. The most obvious one was the 1963 Lancia Flaminia 2.8 3C, owned by Jules Heumann, yes the guy who, with the late Lorin Tryon, revitalized the Pebble Beach Concours. But the car which I would most like to take home was the 1960 Lancia Appia Series III sedan which belonged to Antonio and Nancy Corbelletta, who found it near the local landfill near Moffet Field and persuaded the seller to take $100 for it. Years later, having done the entire restoration themselves, except for the paint and upholstery, it was truly the most charming car of the show, and as they say, pictures don’t do it justice.

The other thing worth noting is that a well known local collector is opening his world-class private museum to visitors. You can view the Mozart collection, after making a reservation at 650.493.9000. On the field, Mozart showed a real Testa Rossa, and it was, of course, spectacular, even if you have been living in California for so long that you are bored with Ferraris. If you are visiting the S.F. Bay area, you should put this number in your Rolodex because it will be the highlight of your trip.

Finally, while not entirely within the scope of this review, I must mention another compelling part of the show – an exhibition of what used to be called ‘travel trailers,’ including some very authentic ones from the early thirties. These are so neat that you have to wonder why they aren’t at every car show!

Next year, the featured marques are Cadillac and Mercedes. The website is: www. paconcours.com, and if you really want to see how a show should be put on, you might want to reserve the date. Hal started working on next year’s show right after the last car left the field.