The Concourse is Coming, the Concourse is Coming

            Sunday is one of the true highlights for car fans of all inclinations from around this region. The 34^th annual Concourse d’Elegance being held in Ault Park opens its gates to avid enthusiasts at 10 am. Of course the Ault Park Concourse is not simply limited to Sunday’s showing of classic and exotic cars, it is an affair lasting the whole weekend and beyond.

            If you’re not familiar with what a Concourse d’Elegance is, it stems from the 17^th century French aristocracy who would parade their elegant horse drawn carriages around the parks of Paris, demonstrating their taste and wealth. As times passed, the horse drawn buggies were replaced by the new horseless carriage and the concept of the car show, or competition of elegance, was born.

            Perhaps the most famous Concourse in the U.S. is the annual event held in Palm Springs with its upscale sophistication, its seemingly endless parade of amazing automobiles and its often record breaking auction. But Cincinnati’s Concourse is one of the better known as well as longest running events in the country. It dates back to 1978 when William and Helen Williams helped found the event as a fund raiser for the Arthritis Foundation.

            Since its beginning on the Williams’ estate, it has grown and taken up residence since 1996 in beautiful Ault Park.

            This year’s Concourse features its regular 13 different classes, ranging from Antiques through 1924 up through Future Classics from 1975 until today. There are classes for Pre-War Vintage and Classics, American Collectors, Foreign Collectors, Asian Collectors, various Sports Cars, Racing Cars, American Performance, and yes, even Motorcycles.

            In addition, this year’s featured theme is “Red Hot Rides” with an emphasis on Ferraris and, believe it or not, fire engines.

            There are also special displays for the 100^th anniversary of the Indy 500 (ask me sometime how I broke the car that won the 500 one year) as well as the 50^th anniversary of the Jaguar XKE and a celebration of the American station wagon titled “Wagons Ho” the 85^th Anniversary of Route 66.

            The Concourse d’Elegance offers something for every car lover with beautiful machines set out all across the Ault Park lawn. The pictures here are from past events and hopefully show the variety of cars that are entered each year. Following this year’s event I will surely have enough photos and individual car owner stories to stock the blog for quite a while. But don’t wait for me to post, make plans to enjoy the event in person.

            To get more information or to pre-order tickets, go to www.cincyconcours.com and check out one of the coolest and most entertaining automobile events.

Number Six and Counting

            Three years ago Layne Myers realized that he had an empty bay in his garage and so he went looking for a Jaguar to fill it. His reasoning was pretty basic. “I didn’t have one,” he said. He had owned five previous Jags over the years starting with an XK120 that had been wrecked when he got it.

            His sixth Jag, the one that filled that empty space in his garage, is a 1977 XJ6L with under 57,000 original miles. Layne is the third owner of this car that cost $7500 new that is presently appraised at between $8000 and $12,000.

                 Layne does admit to adding a few of those miles himself over the past three years. "It's not my every day car but I do show it a lot," he said.

            “It’s all original,” Layne explained, featuring standard power locks, power windows, and power steering with a telescope steering wheel. The original Berger Yellow paint is still holding up well on the car.

            According to Layne, other than just cleaning it up, he basically just did some minor maintenance to the car. He put in a new head liner, new rack and pinion, a new water pump and thermostat along with some new hoses. He did update the air conditioning to handle the new coolants and went with new high pressure steering hoses.

            While he isn’t looking to sell the car he said that he would be willing to listen to offers of at least $7000. Besides, he may already be in the market for his seventh Jaguar.

1934 Cops and Robbers Favorite

            Back during the Great Depression, finding a car that was affordable and also fast attracted both the police and the criminals alike. The 1934 Chevys of the time did just that. The four door Phaelon model was powered by a 221 cubic inch L Head V 8 that cranked out 85 horses while shifting through a three-speed manual sliding transmission.

            Six years ago, novice classic car buff Kent Miller was searching for his first piece of automotive art. As a younger man, while in school, Kent had worked on old cars, getting them and fixing them up. Now he wanted something he didn’t have to spend a ton of time restoring.

            He also hinted that he wasn’t very eager to spend “a ton of money on a car I could have had for a fraction of that 25 years ago.”

            Through an internet search he came across a 1934 Chevy Phaeton for sale in Denver. As it turned out, he had a number of friends and colleagues in the Mile High City and asked one of them to take a look at this one for him. When the friend reported back that the car was in excellent shape and was worth the money, Kent and his wife flew out to pick it up.

            According to Kent the entire trip was something of an experience. Since they were flying one way and not taking luggage, airport security took them aside to ask them why. Finally able to convince the TSA agents what they were doing, they made it to Denver and picked up the car.

            One of the only things they flew out to Denver with were some CDs since the car had a CD player. “But it was broken,” said Kent. “The guy had an Elvis CD stuck up in there” so it was the radio or nothing.

            With the exception of stopping at a rest stop for a short nap, they drove it straight through; leaving midafternoon on a Saturday and arriving home just after dark on Sunday.

            Kent said they actually made very good time, more than keeping up with traffic. He admitted that once his wife fell asleep, “I had it up over 100 and it wanted to go more.”

            The stress of the kind of highway driving the car wasn’t built for took its toll. “The gauges went out,” said Kent. “I didn’t even know how much gas I had.” Later, he added, a seal broke and oil was streaming down the side of the car. “We looked like one of those old airplanes that comes gliding in after a mission,” he said. “But we made it.”

            Overall the car was in very good shape when Kent bought it. In fact he didn’t even have to touch the body. He had the motor fixed and re-did the interior. Beyond that he just keeps it clean.

            Now he likes to take it out for a spin on weekends or drive it to a show. So keep your eye out for this classic 1934 beauty.

Steve Weber's International Restoration Journey The Beginning

          After I posted that first blog entry about Steve Weber's 1957 International S100, he sent me some pictures of the truck when he first bought it. So I thought I'd go ahead and post those so you can all see where everything began.

Steve Weber's International Restoration Journey

            This past winter Steve Weber was on a mission. He was looking to start the journey of restoring a vehicle. He didn’t have anything overly specific in mind except that he was looking for something from the 1950s because “I like that boxy look.”

            What he ended up finding wasn’t your typical cookie cutter ‘50s restore. He came across a 1957 International S100 pick-up truck. Not only is the S100 a fairly rare model to find but the fact that the one Steve found was only a two wheel drive model and this truck becomes even more uncommon.

            International Harvester was the brain child of J. P. Morgan who in 1902 merged the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company with the Deering Harvester Company and three smaller firms. While large farm equipment, particularly tractors, were the company’s primary focus, in 1907 they started making pick-up trucks that soon rivaled the big manufacturers.

            When Steve bought his S100 this past February, it was in nowhere near running shape. But he immediately started the restoring process and hopes to have it completed by September of this year. He admits that the search for parts is one area that he hopes doesn’t slow him down.

            Steve found a wealth of original material with the truck, including papers which told him the specific colors of blue and white that originally adorned this vehicle. While he’s going to keep to the same color scheme, the plan right now is to use a slightly different shade of blue than the number 27 gulfstream that was put on at the factory.

            Steve has sent us some pictures of the car from when he first got it and started working on the project. The last picture in the set was taken at the recent 33^rd Annual ACE Car Show in Armco Park this past Sunday. Steve said that was the first time he’d actually had the S100 out on the road to a show.

We’re going to be following Steve in his International restoration journey though out the summer. Be sure to check in and see how he’s coming along and feel free to comment on what you see. As always, enjoy and if you have a restoration project you’re working on, drop us an email at turnerbudds@yahoo.com.