I was invited to come judge at the 20th annual Burn Prevention Foundation Concours of the Eastern US held in Bethlehem, PA (http://www.concourseast.org/default.shtml) The weather turned out to be perfect for the weekend after days of drenching rains. Saturday featured a rally and fundraiser at the Northhampton Country Club. Janet Guthrie was the featured speaker (http://www.janetguthrie.com/). She was the first woman to qualify for Indy and went on to a remarkable career that led her to the very male dominated sport of Nascar. She gave a very fun speech with very poignant anecdotes. The first shots are from the parking lot. I love watching cars emerging from their lairs. The tiny Crosley is quite the site, especially when viewed between large pickups. The rest of the cars participated in the rally and the last picture is Janet Guthrie. regards ken Here are some images from the concours itself. I judged the contemporary supercars. I was given that cl*** so I could get my pick done and then continue to photograph the venue. I'll start off with the early stuff. There were a number of br*** era cars including 5 Stanley Steamers. regards ken [I This car is incredible. Its a 1914 Locomobile. It is the first car to feature an air suspension. The car is huge. The interior has over 800 hours in it and looks like a turn of the century parlour, complete with tiffany fixtures. I don't have a shot of it but steam comes out of the serpants mouth when the horn is activated.
To anyone who has never seen one of these old steamers run (most here, I'm sure), they are a real trip! There is plenty of valve turning, steam-letting bustle till the thing builds pressure. Then it's stone cold, dead in the water quiet and still. The show's over. About the time you turn to walk away, they engage the drive and motor away in complete silence! Really breathtaking. Twilight Zone!
Thanks! There are alot of these events across the US (and world) You guys should think about roilling out to some. You get a chance to see some wonderful cars that normally don't get much road time. Most events also have special club parking so you can come with a group, not worry about where you are going to park, get close to the venue and enjoy some great cars. Plus, you can get some ideas of what to try on the rods. I especially enjoy the coach built cars. The bodies are all hand crafted and many are one offs. Take for example this car. Its a 1933 Auburn Salon Convertible Coupe with a retractable roof. We see all these fancy BMW's and Mercedes with the push ****on retractable roofs. Some can remember the Ford Skyliner but who even knew this car existed? And that's the point. These are the types of vehicles that you have the opportunity to see on the concours circuit. Furthermore, these events are usually charity driven. The Burn Prevention Foundation concours has raised over a million dollars over the years to http://www.burnprevention.org/. ken
I got turned away from a concours show once, I had on a pair of Keds, but with aftermarket shoelaces... Just kidding, thanks for the shots of the steamers and that Locomobile, beautiful cars and at least they were driven around the lawns for a day.
This Loco belonged to Frank Thomas for something like 25 years, it was unrestored for all those years. It is huge, and he planned to store it on the second floor of an old bar in upstate New York. His daughter was an engineering student ant told Frank the car was too heavy to store up there. Frank was a master at dry humor.......and told his daughter is wasn't a problem since the car would be on jack stands.
I ***ure you that the current owner did the restoration quite well. I don't know how many years Bill has put into the job but it numbers in the thousands of hours. I was utterly facintated by this car the first time I judged it at the Radnor concours back in 2006. Here is another beautiful French coachbuilt car, a 35 Delage d-88.
Great pics AGAIN, Ken. Know you have more and hope you post them. (Beautiful clear blue skies with no clouds. The concours gods were smiling.)
kvisser: Great shots , nice event.. We only have a few events here, that we can see such fantastic automobiles.. Thank's for sharing..
That was a pretty nice show.......my favorite car there was the concept car from Plymouth...the Belmont! What a beauty! I'd seen pics, but never realized how LOW that car actually is....imagine if Mopar came out with a Corvette!
Ken,it was a very nice show.I was impressed by the Auburn with the retractable roof.I see that the 27 Isotta-Fraschini won Best of Show. Sorry we didn't get a chance to meet. Joe
The Burn Prevention concours is judged using French concours standards which is really based on the wow factor. We don't judge on originality/that's the wrong hose clamp type basis. We are looking for historical importance, presentation and the wow factor. Does that car make you say wow. The cl***es I normally judge don't have 20 of the same types of cars in which you have to get down to the hose clamps to really find the best of the best. I normally have 5 to 10 totally different cars in which to look at and figure out which has the 'wow' factor. Normally I can tell by my first walkby what the real line up is going to be. But then I go back and talk to the owners. For instance in the case of the Locomobile back in 2006. I picked a 1911 Hart Craft truck over it. Mostly because I spoke with the owner and found out the history and how the Amish folks had recreated the wheels and that it was the only remaining vehicle known to exist from the Hart company. I also knew that the Locomobile was getting another judge's pick award. It all comes out in the end. At some shows they don't want us to look under the hoods unless there is a tie. We leave the hose clamp judging to the marque shows. However, I do take into consideration when a car has already won those type of awards because you can make certain ***umptions about the vehicle at that point. One thing that is very cool and very unusual about the Bethlehem show, every single car parades in front of the grandstand. Bill Rothemal does an incredible job talking for over 4 hours, giving the story of each car. You get to see, hear and smell each car in its glory. You don't know how lucky we got. It had rained so much the days leading up to the show. The day was perfect up until around 3 pm. Here's the Auburn Duesenberg museum website. I think they run some interesting events. http://www.automobilemuseum.org/Museum/Pages/Calender.aspx What about Meadowbrook? Isn't that up in your neck of the woods? Being from the east coast, the mid west is all one location to me. I'm sure its hours away from you! I lunch with the owner of the Belmont. What a fun lady! She bought 4 concept cars from the GM fire sale. The Belmont was the coolest. Look closely at the front bumper and you'll notice its actually a revised rear bumper. i am too! I need better coordination. But then again, i was pretty busy that day! I started shooting around 7 am. I'll be judging at Radnor Hunt again this year. That's in September and is another fantastic show!
Those are some absolutely gorgeous cars! The Delage would have been worth the price of gas to see for me, all by itself
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