This article shares the first half of the July episode for 'A Shunpiker's Journal'. Here, Steve Purdy conducts an expansive chat with Larry Moss, long-time chairman of the Concours d’Elegance of America at St. John’s, one of the three most prestigious car shows in the U.S.
It is said that the Concours d'Elegance of America has the most diverse field unrivaled by any other Concours. Our field for 2019 promises to not disappoint! The finest classic cars will be on full display for the purists at heart. They will be flanked by some of the most unique and exquisite featured classes ever seen together. Features including; Ferrari Race and Sports cars, The Rise and Fall of the Cadillac Fin, 100 Years of Bentley, Rolls Royce, Alternative Fuels, Woodies, Muscle Cars Class of '69, AA/Gas Supercharged Drag Cars and Modern Collectibles.
Car show season never really ends - think Motorama, NAIAS, and the huge, February swap meet in Kalamazoo - but it ebbs and flows. We’re planning ahead for EyesOn Design, the Orphan Car Show and particularly theConcours d’Elegance of America at St. John’s, acknowledged as one of the most important and prestigious Concours events in the country. As you know, that is the venue for our second Automotive Heritage Awards presentation on Concours show day, July 28 at the Brembo media hospitality tent. We expect to see many of you there for a reception and the awards event. Get your press credentials at: https://concoursusa.org/news-media/media-credentials/ You’ll see a link there to the AHA as well. If you don’t qualify as a journalist let us know and we’ll help.
On this episode of A Shunpiker's Journal is Ford Bronco enthusiast Erik Barnlund from Bloomington, Illinois who enjoys a hot niche in the collector car business.
Segments 1-4: Brian Baker, director of the Leland Chapter of the Society of Automotive Historians, joins us to talk about a variety of projects - his, mine and ours.
Janet Guthrie didn’t always want to race cars. In fact, there was a time she wasn’t even thinking about racing. All she wanted to do was become an astronaut. Guthrie graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in physics and started a career as a research and development engineer for Research Aviation. It wasn’t until Guthrie was eliminated from the first Scientist-Astronaut program in 1963 that she decided to try racing.
Guthrie entered Motorsports at a time when women were viewed as too fragile for the speed and danger associated with racing. However, Guthrie always had an itch for adventure and was ready to shake up the status quo. In her eyes, she was a driver first and a woman second. In her autobiography, Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle, she stated that despite her qualifications, women were absent from NASCAR, explaining that “tradition was all, and tradition stated that women, peanuts, and the color green were not allowed.”
Patterson Collection's - 1959 FERRARI 250GT Tour de France
The 2019 Concours d’Elegance of America at The Inn at St. John’s will feature a historic gathering of Ferrari sports and GT cars in celebration of Ferrari’s first of many wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. One highly successful Ferrari GT model from the 1950’s was the Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta Tour de France. Built to competition specifications on a long wheelbase chassis with alloy coachwork, a total of 77 TdF’s were constructed from 1956-1959 in four different versions. After winning the 1956 Tour de France in convincing fashion, Ferrari adopted the name for this model as it continued to dominate the race with victories in 1957 and 1958.
Serial no. 1161 – 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France, is owned by the Patterson Collection, Louisville KY, and will be featured at this year’s Concours d’Elegance of America, on Sunday, July 28th, as we celebrate “Racing through the Ages – Ferrari”!
