For its first two years, the American version of England’s Classic Car Show was held in the Los Angeles Convention Center. But this year it moved to the Orange County Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa, California, where more than 1,500 vintage vehicles were featured and where there were special displays by 80 Southern California car clubs, collectors and automotive museums from Ventura to San Diego.
The result was a showcase that provided enthusiasts with a first-hand look at pre- and post-war hot rods, muscle cars, low-riders Japanese imports and an incredible display in the Grand Boulevard of the finest and rarest classic and historic motorcars from all eras.
This 1953 Kaiser Traveler was among the vehicles in the ‘Field of Classics’ area
“Our new location with outdoor space is one of the reasons we made the decision to move so we could bring our fans more live experiences,” said Mike Carlucci, the show’s senior vice president.
The first Orange County Fair was held in the late 1800s and was primarily a livestock exhibition with a horse race.A “carnival of products” was added a few years later.
The fair was located at different places until after World War II, when the county purchased the former Santa Ana Army Air Base, which in 1953 was incorporated into the new city of Costa Mesa.
This being Southern California, the Classic Car Show had its share of celebrities, primarily of the automotive genre. Taking their turns on the Celebrity Stage were Dave Kindig, Wayne Carini, Mark Workman, Mike Finnegan, Bogi Lateiner, Lyn St. James and Mark Green while comedian and passionate car collector Adam Carolla served as grand marshall. Carolla’s self-titled podcast has become recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most downloaded podcast in existence.
In a hugely successful effort to have “something for everyone,” the show covered many aspects of car culture, thus catering to the passions of all car enthusiast in attendance.
The Petersen Automotive Museum showed the Tucker 48 from its collection
Among the displays were a selection from the Petersen Automotive Museum that included a gorgeous 1929 DuPont Model G Speedster, a rare 1948 Tucker Torpedo and a 1937 Lincoln Zephyr V12 Coupe . The California Automotive Museum showed a 1912 Metz Roadster and a fabulous 1929 Stutz Model M Sedan.
On the Grand Boulevard Walk of History, a stunning 1931 Duesenberg Model J won the Award of Excellence while a fun 1962 Fiat Jolly also was presented. A 1956 Cadillac Limousine 7533 used under the dictatorship of Generalisomo Francisoco Franco of Spain was displayed next to a 1976 Bricklin SV1 (sort of the Canadian version of a DeLorean).
Best of Show Pre-War went to a statuesque 1930 Cadillac V-16 roadster convertible.
Sonny Messner’s ex-Don Garlits Swamp Rat III was among the dragsters taking part in a ‘cackle fest’
Even drag racing was represented thanks to Steve Gibbs (retired NHRA competition director), who organized a “cackle” of cars from his Nitro Revival team, including the late John Ewald’s “Mastercar” Top Fuel Dragster now owned by Mario Garcia, and Sonny Messner’s “Big Daddy” Don Garlits Swamp Rat III.
Of course, this being a car show at the fairgrounds, it was a family event with children enjoying the “rainbow of steel” while also indulging in hot dogs on a stick and juicy burgers, all washed down by frosty, cool ice cream.
A 1958 Chevrolet Impala 2-door sport coupe owned by the same family for more than 40 years is the Pick of the Day. Black outside and aqua, silver and black inside, the private seller describes that car as “a true midnight beauty” in its advertisement on ClassicCars.com.
“The man who owned and drove it was committed to its preservation,” the seller notes. “He kept everything on the car that was original and replaced only what was essential, such as the rocker panels and gas tank. He found and accumulated many hard to find spare parts, some of which are still in the trunk.
“About 15 years ago, he began a thorough effort to refurbish it with new and accurate paint, more painstaking work on the chrome (today almost mirror-like) and attention to interior details.
“He sought out an autobody shop with a noted craftsman and artisan of the trade.”
Shortly after that work was completed, the man died and his family put the car into storage, where it remained until 2016, when it was sold.
The family first offered the car to the owner of the shop that had done its refurbishing.
“He did not want to buy the car, but knew me, and of my interest in older and classic cars,” the seller reports.
The shop is in Kansas, the second owner is in Oklahoma, but the car remained in Kansas for some additional work.
“Our intent was to retain its originality and the beautiful work he had done years before, while making it mechanically sound and reliable,” the ad says. “We have now completed all the repairs we thought necessary.”
Among the early work done on the car was a new gas tank and rocker panels. Later work included new coil springs, front and rear shocks, brakes and horn, custom floor mats and a front-end alignment.
The 80,932 miles on the odometer likely are original. The engine is a 283cid V8 with and the optional 4-barrel carburetor. In 1958, the engine was rated at 230 horsepower. It is linked to a 2-speed Powerglide automatic transmission.
The seller reports that the car “starts right up with no smoke or unusualnoise from the engine compartment” and “drives as a new car of its era would.”
Though not part of the Tri-5 Chevy era, 1958 Chevrolets have come to be cherished by collectors, especially two-door Impalas with their triple tail lamps.
The asking price is $45,500 and the car is located in Yukon, Oklahoma.
Just two months after the annual Barrett-Jackson automobile auction overtook WestWorld of Scottsdale, Arizona, a different automotive event — though one that also features scores of hot rods and classic cars — arrived in town: the Goodguys 10th Spring Nationals.
While Barrett-Jackson may be the main attraction during the glitz and glam of Arizona Auction Week, Goodguys displays more cars.
About 2,200 cars were on showcased during the three-day event. They spanned decades of model years, but hot rods were undoubtedly the stars of the show. Hundreds of them glittered and gleamed under the bright spring sun and near-cloudless sky.
A hot rod built by Jim Barnas gleamed in the sunlight. | Carter Nacke photo
One of those hot rods, a custom 1929 Ford Model A sedan, was built by Jim Barnas. He said he’s owned the car for about 15 years, but has spent the last four or five rebuilding it from the ground up.
Barnas, who did the lion’s share of the work, said he’s “just an amateur” but the Model A looked to be above the work of your average wrencher. Equipped with a Chevrolet drivetrain complete with 483cid Stroker engine, the car sports a chopped roof and a custom paint job based off General Motors’ Medium Teal used on vehicles in the mid-‘90s. Inside, the Model A has a custom flame two-tone interior.
The custom interior earned Barnas some nods of appreciation. | Carter Nacke photo
Though he didn’t claim a prize at the 10th Spring Nationals, Barnas said his Model A is no stranger to awards and, when you get down to it, is a car he loves.
“It’s a fun car to drive,” he said.
There were plenty of other great classics on hand. One that caught my eye was a 1949 Willys Jeepster. Owner Joe Hudlicky said it was all original, save for the paint job and 1920-pen-set-turned-roadrunner-hood-ornament — oh, and the custom longhorn-hide interior that retains the animals’ fur.
This 1949 Willys Jeepster is nearly all-original, save for a paint job, the crazy roadrunner hod ornament and the longhorn hide interior. | Rebecca Nguyen photo
“You want to know the real reason? I paid $2 a piece for two hides,” Hudlicky said of why he chose the interesting interior, along with, “I just like the way it looks.”
He said he’s owned the Jeepster for 18 years. It was supposedly a Shriner car from Indiana that he brought out to Arizona.
“I always wanted one,” he said. “I’ve owned probably 30 Jeeps, trucks and station wagons, but never one of these.”
The Jeepster looked to be in great condition. | Rebecca Nguyen photo
Hudlicky’s Jeepster is no trailer queen. He said he drives it to California every summer — “I can’t stand the heat,” the Seattle native who winters in Scottsdale said — and he encourages people to touch the car, to sit in it and to take plenty of pictures.
Such is the attitude at Goodguys. Though there are sprinkles of “Look, don’t touch” signs around, most owners encourage people to take a closer look.
A child looks inside a slightly modified Volkswagen Beetle. | Carter Nacke photo
In addition to plenty of cars, the 10th Spring Nationals offered a burnout competition, autocross event and a swap meet full of booths loaded with everything from car parts to blankets to surfboards, even full project cars. There was also a play area for kids, food and live music.
As one child put it when I walked by him near the exit, “This is the best day ever.” He wasn’t wrong.
A barn-find 1961 Jaguar E-type 3.8-liter roadster with matching-numbers components that was used as a daily driver in Niger was sold for more than $100,000.
The car was auctioned off byLeclere Motorcars at its sale in Avignon, France, on March 24. The auction house estimated the value to be between €50,000 and €70,000 ($57,000 to $80,000), but it was hammered sold for €112,800 ($126,599).
As Leclere tells it, the vehicle was built in Coventry, England, toward the end of October 1961 and was delivered new the following month. The E-type was first registered in Brussels and then exported to Niamey, the capital of Niger, in 1978. Once there, it served as the daily driver for a French businessman, who also lent it regularly to family and friends.
At some point, the vehicle’s color was changed from the original Gun Metal to the navy blue paint it now wears.
In 2002, the Jaguar was featured in a documentary by influential French filmmaker Jean Rouch.
The car was started regularly by a mechanic through 2011 but was left to sit after that. It was imported to France in 2014 and has refused to start since its arrival.
Leclere said the Jaguar is chassis No. 875560 and all of its numbers are matching, per the original registration document.
“The E-type Jaguar, especially the Series 1 Flat-Floor, is undoubtedly one of the ten most beautiful cars of all time,” the auction catalog reports. “This authentic car deserves special attention and will make a unique restoration base for the enthusiast collector.”
Mecum Auctions’ inaugural collector car sale in the Phoenix area generated more than $39 million in transactions, an 85 percent boost when compared with any previous first-time Mecum event.
That $39 million figure includes $5.5 million from a private sale off the block of a 2016 Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta, and the overall total may increase as Mecum’s Bid Goes On department continues to close several potential post-auction sales.
However, because it was a private sale, the LaFerrari Aperta is not included in the auction’s official top-10 sales listing.
Rollston-bodied 1932 Duesenberg Model J Torpedo Berline brought $880,000 on the block with commission
After praising the State Farm Stadium venue and the auction’s promotional partnership with the City of Glendale, Arizona, Mecum chief executive Dave Magers said in the company’s news release that, “We have bold plans for future successes like this, and we can hardly wait for our 2020 return.”
Mecum announced the Glendale sale late last fall, planning a 2-day event featuring around 600 vehicles. However, so many people wanted to consign vehicles to the auction that it grew into a more than 1,300-vehicle, 4-day event, and likely will span at least 5 days in 2020.
“The City of Glendale and Mayor Jerry Weiers proved to be natural and valued partners in the promotion of this great event and that our visions for Mecum’s growth in Arizona are in total alignment,” Magers said.
In announcing the auction results, the auction company noted the diversity of the docket as displayed by the top-3 sales — a Detroit muscle car, a pre-war American classic and a late-model Ferrari exotic.
1955 Chrysler Ghia ST Special was bid to $450,000 but was not hammered sold
An original Marcos GT is a rare sight indeed, and one of them, a 1971 example, recently paid a visit to Jay Leno’s Garage.
This particular car features a Ford 3.0-liter V6 but Marcos used engines from a number of suppliers back in the day, including 4-cylinders from Volvo. The car also features a steel chassis, though earlier models featured wood construction.
Marcos is a small British sports car brand that was founded in 1959 and lasted until 1972 in its original form, when it hit its first of several financial roadblocks. The company’s most recent run wasbetween 2002 and 2007, when it managed to manufacture a range of high-performance, hand-built sports cars.
The GT is extremely low, with its tallest point measuring just 43 inches off the ground. Nevertheless, it’s extremely practical, as the cars were all designed to fit company co-founder Jem Marsh, who was 6 feet 4 inches.
When it came to drive, Leno needed to hop into the right-hand side, marking the Marcos as a proper British sports car.
The history surrounding the DeLorean DMC-12 is weird enough for the plot of a Hollywood movie, which has just happened with the release of the feature film Framing John DeLorean, a tale of ego, vision, ingenuity and a big pile of cocaine.
Of course, Hollywood also made the DMC-12 a star of popular science fiction as the time machine in the Back to the Future movies, without which the DeLorean might have become just another has-been collector car instead of the cultural icon that it is today.
The styling is by Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro
The Pick of the Day is a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12in exceptional factory condition, a survivor driven just 8,800 miles since new, according to the private Redondo Beach, California, seller advertising the car on ClassicCars.com. The coupe has been put back on the road with all needed repairs and upgrades completed, the seller adds.
“Everything works on this 1981 DeLorean,” the seller says. “Cooling system upgraded, will not overheat even on long drives in traffic. New tires, as the original 1981 tires were still on this very low-mileage vehicle. New master/slave clutch cylinder as the originals will fail and leave you stranded.
“Clock, Radio, Cassette, all working like new. A/C system has been rebuilt and converted to R134a and now blows colder than original. Brake calipers replaced and stops like new. New headliner. Doors work flawlessly, new seals, no leaks.”
The snug interior looks to be in very nice condition
John Z. DeLorean was no slave to convention, so his boutique sports coupe featured such flashy attributes as an unpainted stainless-steel body and gullwing doors. The styling was by none other than the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro, who was responsible for so many design trends of the era. The car was assembled in Northern Ireland.
While the DeLorean has been faulted for modest performance from its V6 engine, it has remained popular as a unique collector’s item among both auto hobbyists and movie fans. The coupes are often spotted at car shows, gullwing doors deployed, and sometimes with the owner dressed up as old Doc Brown, the mad scientist of Back to the Future.
The asking price is $39,888, which seems like a fair deal for an apparently pristine example of this unique, emblematic car.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
This is supposedly the finalBugatti EB110 SS ever built, meaning it may be one of the final cars to leave Bugatti’s Italian factory before the brand was taken over by Volkswagen Group and production moved to the current site in France.
According to the information posted with its sale viaGirado, the EB110 SS was ordered in February 1995 and delivered in September the same year. The car’s first owner was Bugatti itself, which kept it and only sold it once bankruptcy loomed.
The car was sold to a company based in Luxembourg before it traded hands once more to the current owner in Italy. The website doesn’t specify its mileage today, but it only showed 1,130 kilometers on the odometer before its third and current owner bought it. In non-metric speak, that’s 702 miles, roughly.
While any EB110 is a rare sight, the EB110 SS is the high-performance model. The SS, which stands for Super Sport, features 60 extra horsepower compared to the regular car, up from 510 hp. A new ECU, larger injectors, and a less restrictive exhaust system unlocked the extra power.
Not only is it more powerful, but it’s lighter too. Carbon and Kevlar replaced some of the aluminum body panels to reduce the weight by 330 pounds. Without a driver, the car weighs under 3,100 pounds, despite the hulking 3.5-liter quad-turbo V12 sitting in the middle.
At the time, only the McLaren F1 was quicker from 0-62 mph. Famously, Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher purchased an EB110 SS, choosing it over a slew of other performance cars.
The website doesn’t list a price, which means any inquiries shouldn’t come with sticker shock. For a ballpark figure, an EB110 SSsold for more than $1 million in 2017.
Preston Tucker and his cars will be featured in special programs at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia and at the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
“The Tucker: Inside from the Tucker Family, Owners, and Preservationists” is the title of the Simeone program scheduled for March 30, when Preston Tucker’s great grandsons, Mike and Sean Tucker, will be among the speakers. Also making presentations are Tucker historians Mark Lieberman and Howard Kroplick.
The program will feature 1948 Tucker 48 No. 1044.
On May 11, “Tucker: The 50 Production Cars” is the subject of the second in a series of programs at the AACA Museum, which claims the world’ largest permanent Tucker exhibit, featuring Tuckers 1001, 1022 and 1026.
Lieberman will be joined at the podium by another Tucker grandson, John Tucker Jr., in a program from 2 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.
ACD completes Beatty donation
1931 Packard 840 completes the 10-car donation from the late Guy Beatty | Museum photo
The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in northeast Indiana has received the last of the 10 full classics donated by the late Guy E. Beatty, a real estate developer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and car collector.
The 10th and final car donated to the ACD Museum is a 1931 Packard 840 dual-cowl phaeton, which is on display in the museum’s special-interest vehicle gallery.
In accepting the cars, the museum noted that the Beatty donation is the largest private donation in the museum’s 45-year history.
Mercedes museum extends exhibit
Mercedes-Benz Museum extends special exhibit of VfB Stuttgart soccer history and associated cars | Museum photo
The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Germany will extend “On the move since 1893,” an exhibit celebrating the history of the VfB Stuttgart soccer team, and its use of Mercedes vehicles, by seven weeks through May 19.
The museum notes that since the exhibit opened, it has drawn 170,000 visitors to see the more than 100 objects, including five Mercedes vehicles.
Summer camp at Corvette museum
The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is joining with the local Aviation Heritage Park and Historic Railpark and Train Museum to offer a “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” summer camp from June 17-21 for youngsters entering 2nd through 5th grades when the new school year starts in the fall.
The program will include two days at the Corvette museum, two at the RailPark and one at the Aviation facility. For details, see the special webpage.
Special events this weekend
It’s Demo Day on Saturday, March 23, at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia, where the theme is “The Winner’s Circle: Becoming a Champion” and the vehicles to be exercised are a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B MM Spider, 1927 Mercedes-Benz S-Type Sportwagen, 1936 Bugatti Type 57G “tank,” 1952 Cunningham C-4R roadster and 1958 Aston Martin DBR1.
The Miles Through Time Automotive Museum in Toccoa, Georgia, stages a car club cruise-in on March 23 and opens for the season on April 10.
The AACA Library & Research Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, continues its “Saturday Matinee” program at 1 p.m. March 23 with viewing of film footage featuring the Glidden Tour History. The series ends April 13 with A History of Motor Racing.
The Lyon Air Museum at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, hosts a special Carroll Shelby car show March 23 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. with special displays of Shelby Legendary Cars and of Dan Gurney’s “Sebring Edition” continuation Cobra.
The World of Speed museum in Wilsonville, Oregon, March 23 of 11 cars in a special Mario Andretti exhibition that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Andretti’s Indianapolis 500 race victory. Included in the display are the 1949 Hudson that Mario and his twin, Aldo, built and raced and the 1967 Ford GT40 Mk IV that Mario drove to victory at Sebring.
“RADwood: Cleveland Goes Rad” is the title for an exhibit/experience running through March 24 at the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland. Staged in partnership with RADwood car shows, the exhibit will celebrate 1980s and ‘90s car culture and will showcase vehicles, clothing, music “and everything in between.”
Mark your calendar
The Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile in Torino, Italy, opens a new exhibit on the interaction of passion, graphics and design on March 28.
The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland hosts a cars and coffee cruise-in from 8 until 11 a.m. on March 30.
LeMay Collections at Marymount in Tacoma, Washington, hosts the LeMay Tea Party on March 30.
The Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild will stage a reunion and model car exposition April 4-7 at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan, where more than 100 of the cars will remain on exhibit through October.
Mitch Bishop, co-author of IMSA 1969-1989: The Inside Story of How John Bishop Built the World’s Greatest Sports Car Racing Series, will autography copies from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 6 at Autobooks-Aerobooks in Burbank, California.
April 5 is the registration deadline for the teen driving day being held in conjunction with the Kentucky Safe Driver Program at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green on April 13.
“USAC Stars: From Dirt Tracks to the Brickyard” is the theme of a panel discussion at 6 p.m. April 9 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum featuring U.S. Auto Club racing champions Brady Bacon, Tyler Courtney, Dave Darland, Justin Grant and Kody Swanson.
The Miles Through Time museum in Toccoa, Georgia, opens for its 2019 season on April 10. The museum will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.
The 50th anniversary of Mario Andretti’s victory in the 1969 Indianapolis 500 will be celebrated April 10 with a dinner at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, where the evening program includes a “fireside chat” with Andretti.
The National Corvette Museum’s NCM Motorsports Park will stage a special “Drive Toward a Curve Day” program on April 12 to fight Parkinson’s Disease. The track in Bowling Green, Kentucky, will off an all-day, lead-follow lapping program with $50 of the $125 entry going toward the charity. The track stages its teen driving day being held in conjunction with the Kentucky Safe Driver Program at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green on April 13.
Kimber Festival logo
The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia hosts the Kimber Festival 2019 on April 12-13. Though termed a “festival,” the two-day program is an academic conference about MG and its history, including design, production, technology and participation in motorsports.
April 17th is Mustang Day at the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and at the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing in York Springs. The program starts at 9 a.m. at the AACA and after lunch moves to the racing museum.
SEMA’s CuS.T.E.M. Car Experience visits the LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington, on April 19. The program introduces middle school students to the automotive customization hobby through STEM education experiences.
Britain’s National Motor Museum at Beaulieu hosts its annual “Simply Audi” car show on April 21.
The AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, is organizing a bus trip to the New York International Auto Show on April 27.
The Lingenfelter Collection in Brighton, Michigan, hosts its annual Charity Spring Open House event April 27 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Ken Lingenfelter’s collection of more than 180 vehicles will be open to the public to benefit the American Cancer Society.
“Mario Andretti: ICON” is a special exhibit that opens May 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. The exhibit is designed as a comprehensive 50th anniversary celebration of Andretti’s victory in the 1969 Indianapolis 500 race.
The NASCAR Hall of Fame museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, opens a special “RCR 50: Only in America” exhibit featuring 50 years of Richard Childress Racing in May.
“My dream is longer than the night,” a radio play about Bertha Benz and her influence on the early motorcar, will be performed May 3-5 at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Germany.
The Simply Ford gathering May 5 at Britain’s National Motor Museum at Beaulieu will feature the 60th anniversary of the Ford Anglia 105E and the 50th birthday celebration for the Ford Capri.
Land Rovers at Gaydon
The British Motor Museum stages its fifth annual “Gaydon Land Rover Show” on May 11-12 with a special appearance on May 12 by the Ferguson 4 Wheel Drive Club and its vehicles.
The Murphy Auto Museum in Oxnard, California opens its new Fireball Gallery of automotive art with a special event from 6 until 10 p.m. on May 11.
“Colors of Speed — 50 Years of the 917,” a special exhibition of 10 of the famed Porsche racing cars, opens May 14 and runs through September 15 at the Porsche Museum in Germany.
The AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, opens two new summer exhibits on May 18 — Studebaker Cool: 114 Years of Innovation, and Harley-Davidson: History, Mythology and Perceptions of America’s Motorcycle. Both exhibits run through October 20.
Britain’s National Motor Museum at Beaulieu hosts both its silver-anniversary spring autojumble (swap meet) May 18-19 and a 60th anniversary celebration of the Mini.
LeMay Collections at Marymount in Tacoma, Washington, offers Model T drivers education classes May 18, June 8, July 7, August 4 and September 8.
The IMS Museum presents the 21st annual Indianapolis Historic Racing Exhibition on May 23-25 when around 70 Indianapolis 500 racing cars are expected to return to the track for exhibition laps and to be displayed in the museum parking lot inside Turn 2. The event is open to cars that raced at Indy between 1911 and 1994.
Britain’s National Motor Museum and the Montagu home at Beaulieu will host a major exhibition of sculpture from May 25 through July 14. “Sculpture at Beaulieu” will feature more than 350 works by more than 60 sculptors.
LeMay Collections stages LeMay Motorcycle Days from June 13-23 with 200 motorcycles on exhibit and with rounds of motorcycle soccer.
The Blackhawk Museum in Danville, California, will stage its annual Father’s Day car show on June 16.
The Miles Through Time museum in Toccoa, Georgia, hosts its second annual car show from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on June 22.
The Murphy Auto Museum in Oxnard, California, hosts its seventh annual vintage trailer show from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on June 29, with more than 40 vintage trailers and campers on display.
“The Car. The Future. Me” is the title of an exhibit scheduled to open July 13 at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, UK, to explore “futuristic car design and (to) challenge your idea of how we will interact with the cars for the future,” the museum said.
The Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan, inducts new members Sergio Marchionne, the late chief executive of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles; Janet Guthrie, the first woman to qualify as a driver in the Indianapolis 500; Richard “Dick” Dauch, co-founder of American Axle Manufacturing; and Patrick Ryan, creator of the first auto dealership finance and insurance department, on July 18 in Detroit.
On August 3, the British Motor Museum will be the site of the Classic Mini Mosaic world-record attempt that is expected to draw more than 600 classic Minis. The following day the museum will be the site of the National Metro & Mini Show.
The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, inducts racer Briggs Cunningham, Corvette designer Tom Peters, and Dollie Cole, Corvette enthusiast and widow of former GM president Ed Cole, into its hall of fame on August 30.
“Legends of Speed,” a showcase of nearly two dozen historic racing cars, opens November 2 at the Phoenix Art Museum.
Does your local car museum have special events or exhibitions planned? Let us know. Email [email protected].
(Editor’s note: Jake Mayne is a professional and certified project manager who also has restored more than a dozen collector vehicles. This is the fourth in a 4-part series — to be published each Friday in March — in which he shares how to apply project managing techniques to save time and money when doing your own restoration. This week’s subject: Assembly and finishing.)
Second only to the hunt and the find, this stage of the restoration project is very exciting.
If you are doing the assembly work yourself, the smell of mice piss is long gone. New parts start to arrive like Christmas. Have a garage party the day your ride comes home from the body shop. Get some encouragement from your friends and family to finish it.
Re-visit your project plan and add a column called “actual cost.” In this column, start to populate what things ended up costing. How close were you?
Take your time assembling your car. Remember, most of us have more time than money, so if you blow your scheduled time frame for assembly, no harm, no foul. Sure, you will run into stuff you forgot to order or buy, and no one has an entire hardware store bolt and nut section in their garage. Countless trips to your local hardware store are expected.
You know who has every nut and bolt needed for a restoration? A hardware store.
In the end, you have an amazing ride that YOU built — with a plan.
The spectrum of a car build varies from outsourced turn-key to do-it-all yourself. Either way, a properly planned project will cost less, be of higher quality, and take less time than an unplanned build.
Two more things: Don’t do a build on your credit card, have the money in hand. And plan your build like you did a road trip before GPS. A prudent person would never head out on a cross-country road trip without well mapped-out plan.
Oh yes: Enjoy the ride. Who knows? You may even win an award for your hard work.
Jake Mayne poses with an award he won for his 1970 Plymouth AAR Cuda.
To see more build pictures and read the story about the AAR Cuda pictured above, head to my blog. You can also check out the full list of all the parts I needed to complete my build below:
