Tph479
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Posts posted by Tph479
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1 hour ago, West Peterson said:
I believe Sakhnoffsky's ideas as a consultant (1931-1932) were implemented with great talent and skill by Werner Gubitz.
Is there a date on that photo? Since this doesn't look much like a prototype for the 1932 model, is it possible that it's a standard-built car that was modified in 1933?
I’ll have to go through my paperwork and see if there is a date on it. I had that photo on the computer so it was easy to pull up and post.
My belief was if this was a standard built car, it would have had to been built/ restyled by the summer or fall of 32 at the latest. By that point Packard was already designing the 33 model which had skirted fenders and short length running boards.
This thread is a nice conversation.Allen, when are you going to post a picture of the 38 and tell the story?
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7 hours ago, West Peterson said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Alexis de Sakhnoffsky gets credit for the V windshields, not Dietrich. de Sakhnoffsky is also the person who instituted the hood going all the way back to the cowl on the 1934 models.
This is a picture of a 1932 Packard 900 prototype. It looks like Packard was already playing around with the hood back to the cowl look as early as 1930-1931. Again this is 2 years ahead of the Lebarron and Dietrich show cars with the same look. Gubitz was the main designer of this car.
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7 hours ago, West Peterson said:
??? This IS a factory 2/4 coupe from 1933. Packard didn't lower the roofline until 1934, basically putting a hardtop onto a convertible body.
1932 Packard 900 stationary coupe used the convertible coupe body, where the hardtop clothed in fabric was installed on the line. Low windshield height, low roofline, raked windshield, no door frame around the windows. Same body with minor revisions was carried over to the 1933 1001. The low priced Packard was 2 years ahead of its older siblings in design.
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Model J. Painted shell, painted wheels, raked windshield, low roof, long hood.
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3 hours ago, edinmass said:
The people buying a car for 5 million dollars don't need to count their money.
You are 100% correct. The people buying these cars have other people counting their money for them.
I bet at the end of every month they still know what they have to the closest million, ask their advisers about market price and trends and also don’t want to overpay for anything.
The people buying these cars in modern times run in the same economic circles of the original buyers back in the day.
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On 1/16/2023 at 5:29 PM, rwchatham said:
Is this packard really worth the 4 million asking price ?
Just think if you have $4 million clams in a money market paying 3.5% and your purchased this this car it would cost you $140,000.00 a year in lost interest to own. If that number is too large an expense, you can justify it by breaking it down to a cost of $11,666.67 a month, or $388.89 dollars a day or $16.20 cents per hour, or .27 cents per minute or .0045 cents per second to own in lost interest. That is just using simple math and not including the insurance cost or any other cost of ownership.
The question now is would you have more fun looking at and driving this beautiful car, or would you rather have the .0045 cents per second in your bank account? Just think these numbers are rounding errors for the person who will eventually own this car.
How many total V- windshield Dietrich's were built from 1932-1934 in all body styles?
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Six pages into the best looking prewar sedans and no one posted a picture of Father Divine’s Duesenberg yet?
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4 hours ago, alsancle said:
So we don't sully up the Dietrich thread any more than we need to.
I have a few. But this one is at the top of my list. Special Newmarket on a Silver Ghost chassis.
This car was advertised on the Chicago Craigslist a few years (4-6 years)back. It was dusty with other cars in the background. It didn’t have a price listed and was a local area code. No local guys could could remember seeing it around.
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10 minutes ago, edinmass said:
There are no superlatives that can describe a well sorted Individual Custom Dietrich Twelve from 1934. Having been fortunate enough to drive some of the absolute worlds best pre war cars………I can state definitively, that a 1934 Packard 1108 Sport Sedan is the best closed car in the world. I can think of two other similar cars……….that are a very close second. One is a Model J, the other a PII.Twenty grand and Newmarket sport sedan? There was a p1 Newmarket sport sedan on the Chicago Craigslist for sale a few years back.. seriously Craigslist-
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17 minutes ago, edinmass said:
The San Francisco coupe has endured a color change since the Packard show. I don’t think it’s been seen publicly and no photos in the new scheme have leaked out. You know what your parents taught you………it applies to the new paint job. In my humble opinion. Certainly my favorite collection on the globe. Followed closely by Maine, and Petaluma.I seen it out San Fran in 2018. It was still sinister black at that time. It looked fine to me, but to each their own. The curator was shocked that I knew of the car. I also pointed out their 900 coupe sedan and told him that the last time I seen it I had to help push it onto the trailer because it was out of gas and the local cruise night. I should have bid more on that one…Small world.
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9 hours ago, Cadillac Fan said:
1994 Packard Experience, CCCA Museum/ Gilmore Car Museum
photo: Richard Spiegelman, flikr
The blue 32 904 Victoria in the background in the 3rd picture used to be owned by a one of my old car buddies who is now deceased. Car was top notch when he owned it and it took a bunch of awards in the late eighties/ early nineties at all of the top shows. He used to occasionally bring it up to the local cruise in at the hot dog stand and it would be surrounded by hot rods and muscle cars. His wife let me sit in it when I was a teenager and the hood seemed a mile long from behind the windshield.
She also let me go for a ride in his 68 barracuda bo29 from the same hot dog stand to the trailer. It was by far the loudest and most exhilarating car I was ever in. Going through the crowd was like Moses spreading the sea with everyone covering their ears. It was loud and it rumbled.-
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Some Dietrich photos from the centennial by yours truly. The coupe was Chicago owned at that time. Now in San Francisco.
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1 hour ago, alsancle said:
This is probably my most favorite Packard design. I know that it it a sedan and by default a sedan can’t be one’s favorite car in the collecting world but this car breaks all of the rules. This car has everything going for it, engine, chassis, custom body, design lines, interior … it just checks all of the boxes with big x’s. I remember seeing the car of the dome at a show, maybe it was the centennial, and was just blown away seeing the car in person.
The rear slope of this car is very similar to the 1932 900 and 1933 1001 coupe sedan that was penned by Werner Gubitz, who previously worked for Dietrich. I have always wondered if there is any Gubitz connection in this body, or vice versa with Dietrich with the 900 design.
Cool thread. Dietrich’s rock.
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14 hours ago, edinmass said:
The proof is in the driving. After fifty years of driving a bunch of pre war stuff……..one can predict the performance envelope of almost any car especially the 1920-1942 years. Pre WWl it can be a bit more difficult. I can assure s you if my White’s didn’t drive in the top one percent of their era…….they would be LONG gone. I don’t like ordinary cars. White #2 makes the first one seem slow……….that thing is ridiculous. Much lighter and more horsepower according to what I have researched. We plan on doing a Caravan with the 1917 in April………it will keep up with the 41 Cadillacs……..just don’t stop short in front of me……….that would be ugly!It is nice that we get to talk about the performance of the big cars from the teens and early twenties and bring them to people’s attention that are not familiar with that era. A well sorted car of this vintage can easily keep up with the speed limits on most roads today. It is quite funny when you pass up a modern car that you tower over and you get the weird look from them.
The braking systems are usually well designed and can easily lock up the rear wheels. The problem is that you have 4 to 6 thousand pounds of moving weight and the rear tires maybe have 12 square inches of contact area to the pavement….. that is when the fun begins. In reading period literature the engineers talk about the down falls of front brakes and how you can have uncontrolled skids and the cars would do summersaults and such in stopping.
I am game for driving a White next time I’m in Florida.
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A pretty neat chart. Do any other makes have anything similar to this?
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19 hours ago, edinmass said:
Having driven most of the cars in the chart……..and driven my 1917 White at 72 mph……….I can tell you it’s mostly bullxhit. The numbers are not based on any type of reality. The only reason the White is included is it has the highest horsepower rating published in 1917 that I am aware of. Of course the Pierce 48 is about 40 percent more horsepower. I would take the entire chart and toss it in the trash.
Even when Packard’s Colonel Jessie Vincent lied he told the truth!
It would be pretty funny if a car manufacturer conducted their own comparison and had their product not finish first in every test performed and gloat about it. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will ever happen.
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On 12/22/2022 at 8:01 AM, Tph479 said:
1917 information. Tested by Jessie Vincent from Packard.
I wondered about his test also. I’ve had a twin six up to 70 mph and it was verified with a modern car speedo behind me. If you are going to test a car you have to put it through it paces right? And have the tail car ready with a tow strap in case you break down and have to be towed back.
There was still plenty of pedal left and the motor was still pulling hard before I let off the gas. This was with the top up and windshield up. I assume it would be faster with both in the down position. Doing 70 in these cars is pretty thrilling. The sensation of driving a wood wheel, rear brake only, open car of that weight is nothing like driving a modern car that speed.
In the comparison above it doesn’t state the size of the 5 people in the car and if they were the same 5 people in all of the cars. It also doesn’t tell if the tops were up or down. I also wonder if the minimum speed start was in top gear and if the max speed was thru a set distance.Bashing your competition is something the big 3 pickup truck makers do all of the time on their tv commercials which I find comical. You know the minute the second car ever was built in this world that both car owners were looking to race each other and gloat about whose machine was better…
It is pretty neat that there were doing all of these tests back in the day and that the period literature still exist today to be shared and still debated over.
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1917 information. Tested by Jessie Vincent from Packard.
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1 hour ago, edinmass said:
Here is a good photo. A exceptionally nice Murphy Roadster on the field in 2022. A world class car by anyones definition. The BOS car is next to it. This 100 point Murphy didn’t even place in the class. That’s what we call deep water. The car is owned by good friends. I hadn’t been seen in like 25 years, so it was reasonably fresh with lots of current upgrades so it presented as a “new restoration”. And you get a thank you for bring your car. That is how Pebble works. Notice the judges. Ten minutes after this photo, I helped out a friend with his 29 Packard no start on the field. He had shut off his vacuum tank and forgot. Nerves cost him a trophy. You must be on top of your game, or you lose…….
Craig is a nice guy. His dad was also a gentleman with great taste in cars.
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Another 1932 Packard 900. The before and after. I also don’t think this car would look good with side mounts. It would interrupt the flow of this lines. I also switched it to wire wheels, which makes the car look lighter. My opinion is the blackwalls on this car make it look longer and lower and probably more authentic to how it looked during period. Whitewalls and sidemounts work on other cars, I just don’t think they work on this particular car. This car has its original paint and interior and was in single family ownership until 2019.
I ordered the new blackwall tires for his car during my first jab of getting chemo pumped into me. Only had two jabs a couple of years ago and things are fine now. The guy sitting next to me looked at me and asked, did you just order tires? I said yes, what else am I supposed to do sitting here? Every time I look at this car I just smile and think to myself everything is going to be ok.
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1932 Packard 900. My late friend Art made the switchero to black walls. Only difference in the car is the blackwalls, rims painted black, grill insert painted body color and frame painted black. Otherwise the car is the same, besides not rolling on marshmellows.
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6 hours ago, Tph479 said:
It still is possible to work on a barn find car for a few years with you buddies in the garage in your spare time, talking about and solving all of the world’s problems as you tinker, apply to pebble for the heck of it thinking they are going to throw your application in the garbage, since you have never been there before (not even as a spectator) and you know the odds are stacked against you to even get accepted. But you are thinking that if you do get accepted you get 4 free tickets, and a fantastic parking spot on the lawn. Did I say Free, like capital F free? Then all of a sudden you get an letter in the mail saying you are in. You are in like flynn unless Covid calls the show off for a second year. And then you start to think, oh crap, I have to finish this car now and am going to be laughed off the field… maybe they need my car as the fluffer to make the other cars look better…. The system is rigged! But I’ll go along with the program.
The letter arrived in late winter, giving us many more months to finish. For those of you who don’t understand the term winter - that is where frozen water falls from the sky in white crystalized form. This white crystalized version of frozen water is called snow. Snow accumulates on the ground, preventing us from driving our antique cars on the road thus allowing us to work on old cars, or at least talk about working on the old cars as the cars and projects gather dust. There is no need to explain dust on old car projects since everyone of you knows what I am talking about. Capeesh? From the time the letter arrives is to the show I recall was like 6 or 7 months. No problem the car will be finished in no time, correct?
So we finish the car the Saturday before the show, and when I mean finish it, I mean finish it, not wiping it with a baby diaper finish it, you know like still working on it, putting the driveshaft in, adjusting the brakes etc, and taking it for its maiden voyage for the first time driving it up and down the block a few times late in the afternoon and then throw it in the old trailer, ( which by itself is old enough to be considered AACA eligible, if they had a trailer class)We leave on Sunday and drive about 2,250 miles heading west to pebble. We arrived on Wednesday after being sidelined for a few hours because we threw a wheel bearing outside of Sacramento. Besides that the trip was uneventful, well besides being bounced around on some horrible California highways. What’s with that? They don’t have snow ( which I gave my snow lesson earlier) and salt out here, what’s with all of those potholes?? They pay enough in taxes that they should have smooth roads…
Oh, I just remembered how we missed our turn into pebble beach and Siri had us driving through downtown Carmel with the truck and trailer on those tight streets and we were trying not to sideswipe all of the exotic cars. There were also some exotic people sporting some fresh restorations if you know what I mean, you know, some people sporting new NOS parts. The pedestrians probably thought Sanford and Son rolled into town and the locals were probably thinking that they should put up the For Sale signs in front of their houses as we tried to navigate back to where we needed to be.
We finally arrived in the parking lot after being on the road for 3 1/2 days, open the trailer and see how dusty the car is from the road trip and start to laugh because you realized how you wasted your time cleaning it really good the night before you left on the journey. So you take the car on its first real ride around the parking lot and the local streets, test driving and doing figure eights and driving like a Shriner in a 4th of July parade and decide what the heck, the car seems to be running well and I know every component was rebuilt- It starts, it stops, it’s running good and since we signed up for the 75 mile tour, we say let’s go for it. We came 2,250 miles, what’s 75 more in a 101 year old car…So you wake up early the next morning, get in line and are thinking to yourself “where did all of these incredible cars come from” because they were all not in the lot yesterday. So you pull away and within the first 15 minutes you see cars pulling over with various problems. Then you are driving up and down mountains with a car with rear wheel brakes only, and you start to think and second guess yourself “did I put every last bolt and cotter pin back on the car, because there were some laying on the table next to the car when I finished it up” and other thoughts like that. This nonsense is going through your mind as you are driving down a mountain road in bumper to bumper tour traffic and we are coming up to a stop sign. Did I mention that the car in front of us is a disappearing top SJ Murphy convertible coupe, and you are thinking, well if the brakes go out I guess Haggerty is buying them a new rear bumper.
After you get to the coffee stop, you figure the rest of the ride is going to be easy since looking at the directions you see it’s pretty much going down to Big Sur and coming back on open roads. Well since we are at the back of the pack everything is fine until we get stuck in traffic coming up the hill on the pacific coast highway going back to pebble. The car really started to act up and wanting to stall and I started pumping the heck out of the mechanical fuel pump on the dash board thinking I am vapor locking and trying to get the fuel pressure up to blow any bubbles out of the system. Luckily the light turns green and the traffic starts to move and as we come up to the traffic light it starts to turn red, and my dad is like “f it” blow though it, we are in an old car we have the right away. Last thing you want is to tie up traffic, creating grid lock on a hill in a broken down antique car looking like a bunch of knuckle heads. After driving Chicago style though the red light, the car started running good again and we entered the Griswold European vacation roundabout road back into pebble. From there it’s all downhill and we had gravity and momentum on our side. As we pull into the lot the car dies and I kid you not we literally roll up to the trailer. First thing that comes to my mind is I broke it, I don’t know to what extent I broke it, and we will have to work our hinds off to get on the field on Sunday. As I get out of the car and start to stretch, I start to think about the red over priced gas station purchased gallon gas can collection 2,250 miles away from us from my dad’s habit of running out of gas, and was thinking it can’t be out of gas, we only went 75 miles….can this car really be that much of a gas hog and drinking that much gas?? No it really can’t…. Can it? Low and behold I tap the bottom of the gas tank and it sounded like a empty drum. I was pretty much out of gas and that’s why it’s seemed like it was vapor locking on the hill. The car was pretty much running on pressurized fumes. Simple fix, put some more gas in it. That was genius level thinking on my behalf. Real cars like drinking gas…..right?
My friend was in for car week, and since we were shacking up in his vacation rental he was at the parking lot waiting for us to arrive. Luckily he ran, and when I mean ran, he got into his rental car that did have gas in it and drove to the gas station to get some more gas to bring it back to us. I thanked him many times for that one. Unfortunately, since he borrowed a gas can, we were not able to buy an over priced red souvenir gas from Carmel to add to our growing gas can collection back home. Dang, now I have to go back to California to get a red souvenir gas can to complete our wall of gas cans from every state that we have ran out of gas in. The gas can collection is quite impressive, mostly from midwestern states. A lot of the cans predate that junky nozzle design so they are true collector pieces. Don’t you all hate those new style nozzles? By the way the gas can collection is Smithsonian quality. It probably covers 30 years of gas can design and technology.
My friend asked if I could take his wife, daughter and boyfriend for a quick ride around the parking lot. Not wanting to impress all of the entrants with my figure eight Shriner driving in the parking lot again, I was telling them that it will not be fun to go for a ride in the parking lot (just to clarify -doing figure eights, those are always fun to do in a parking lot, especially in the snow) let’s drive the 17 mile scenic drive instead. What the heck, we are in California on vacation let’s drive this thing, I have been looking at it for 7 years! You two, hop in the rumble seat! And off we went for another ride.
I spent the next two days hanging out in the parking lot detailing the car, looking over every possible inch to make sure everything is bolted together and cotter pinned, which is was, and just drinking beer and taking it all in as a newbie. Then all of a sudden Sunday morning is here, it’s showtime at the Apollo, at least I can say we restored a car, got accepted to the show, the car ran perfect besides the running out of gas issue, I got to drive the pacific coast highway in the car, drive the 17 mile scenic road, I met some real true car enthusiasts and I got into pebble beach for Free! What is better than that? Judging starts and I am clueless on what to expect. The judges who were as pleasant and nice as can be, asked me all sort of inquiring questions and asked to see pictures of the car before, during and after of the restoration. I was like I really don’t have any after pictures, I just finished it last week! They were laughing at that response.
So after judging i walked around the field checking the incredible iron, taking it all in. When I say incredible iron, I mean it, every car is beyond nice and the quality is top notch. We’re talking fine, really fine machines. I head back to the car to hang out. I ended up answering a lot of questions from spectators who seemed to like the car. Like I stated earlier a lot of true car people were there and taking pictures and asking knowledgeable questions, which I was more than happy to answer.
After a while, as the show progresses, the class leader comes over and tells me to stay near the car and that I might have to move it. I really didn’t know what he meant by that. I start thinking to myself move it where, behind the dumpster? Then he comes back and tells me that I’m one of the 3 picked. I’m thinking to my self sweet! I am going to get a third place award, that’s fantastic. You pull up to the line and the 3 cars that were picked from the class are parked 3 across and the guy, explains how it’s works. The guy has a headset on, clip board, you know the whole deal, he looks the part, so I’m just calling him The Guy. To me he is the original Big Guy. He was very friendly, and very complementary to the 3 of us in our class. By the way, All of the judges, volunteers and staff were class acts all the way around. They really went out of their way to treat everyone kindly.
So how it works for award is- 3rd goes first, then 2nd and finally 1st drives across the ramp to get the awards , but you don’t know who has what until you are called. I’m thinking ok, I’m driving across the ramp first to get my 3rd place. The announcer calls the first name and it’s not me, did he misspeak? Maybe I don’t understand Pebbleease… Then I am all excited thinking this is more sweet I’m getting a second!! Not too shabby. Then…. Then …it’s down to two cars, and before they announce the second place winner, The Big Guy who was explaining to us how the judging works is already pointing at the other car to go across the ramp. We were sitting in the car and it didn’t register right away, and we were like holy blank, ( to keep this pg I am using the word blank in place of a four letter word that is short for the saying, Ship High in Transit) we are getting first! 1st in class at Pebble for a first time entrant!! I was thinking wasn’t this supposed to be rigged? How did we get first??. Maybe I’m not a fluffer after all!
They then park you in the winner’s circle where all of the 1st place class winners get parked. From the winner circle they then pick best in show. So that’s how that works. Some of the class judges did come up to me and congratulate me which I thought was really cool of them to do and that continued the class act of the show which I spoke of earlier. Very nice, very professional. Top notch all the way around.
My Pebble Beach experience is beyond words as a exhibitor. My pebble experience in 2021 was completely unexpected. From start to finish- As a nobody from nowhere in this hobby I found out that just messing around in the garage and hanging out with my friends and tinkering with a car led to the memory of a lifetime. Again I would like to thank all of my friends again.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.1920 Packard 3-35 Twin six
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16 hours ago, edinmass said:
So here is the deal. Most of the time cars are in classes and you can usually tell first, seconded, and third just from the restoration and the actual car. That works 95 percent of the time. The cars usually live and die on their own merits. Then you get special classes where all the cars are invited on a special case. They tend to be a bunch of great things, but one or two usually stick out for exceptional design or exceptional history. So when in such a class, you can usually figure out the winners. Also, with “lesser cars” the owners already know they are under water when they drive on the field. “Cannon fodder” if you will. But there are the non tangible things in the background that come into play also. When I walk up to a class trying to figure out the results I ask myself three questions. 1- Who restored it and when, 2- who is the owner, 3- the car, IE: design, coach builder, colors, provenance,ect.Other things to consider? Is it a fresh restoration………that carry’s a ton of weight.
First time ever on a show field. Getting rare today, but that is HUGE!
Cars that are unusual, and well hidden and not generally know to the hobby.
And the last thing, and most important. Your at Pebble where your fantastic world class car is driven on the filed and your feeling really good about yourself. You drive to the class, park, and see what’s going head to head with you. Instant reality check……..it’s PEBBLE and any monster car can pop up unexpectedly. Been there done that. Certain cars have what we call “eyeball” or “presence”. Just the right combination of color, trim, wheel treatments, ect. This year at Pebble we didn’t show a car, so I walked the field starting a 6 am. By 9 I had made my Best of Show choice……sat down and had coffee with the owner on a bench and congratulated him on his Best in Show win. He was flabbergasted that I would make that comment. I explained my reasons, and he was humbled and flattered…….but didn’t think he was going to win. I was correct. Doing this for 50 years gives you a feeling in your bones.
One last comment. I once took a top 10 in the world car to a show for someone. The top ten number came from Road & Track comments in a story, so we aren’t talking my opinion. There were TEN split windshield custom Dietrich’s in the class…..TEN! So, how do you pick a first in a class where any of the ten cars would be Best of Show at 99 percent of the venues across the world. That class was a mistake, and they knew it as soon as the judging started. Ten people who expected to be in the running, and seven went home disappointed. So it’s easier to manage the classes ahead of time. Yes, there is free and fair competition……..but most often there are very few fresh restorations on cars today.
It still is possible to work on a barn find car for a few years with you buddies in the garage in your spare time, talking about and solving all of the world’s problems as you tinker, apply to pebble for the heck of it thinking they are going to throw your application in the garbage, since you have never been there before (not even as a spectator) and you know the odds are stacked against you to even get accepted. But you are thinking that if you do get accepted you get 4 free tickets, and a fantastic parking spot on the lawn. Did I say Free, like capital F free? Then all of a sudden you get an letter in the mail saying you are in. You are in like flynn unless Covid calls the show off for a second year. And then you start to think, oh crap, I have to finish this car now and am going to be laughed off the field… maybe they need my car as the fluffer to make the other cars look better…. The system is rigged! But I’ll go along with the program.
The letter arrived in late winter, giving us many more months to finish. For those of you who don’t understand the term winter - that is where frozen water falls from the sky in white crystalized form. This white crystalized version of frozen water is called snow. Snow accumulates on the ground, preventing us from driving our antique cars on the road thus allowing us to work on old cars, or at least talk about working on the old cars as the cars and projects gather dust. There is no need to explain dust on old car projects since everyone of you knows what I am talking about. Capeesh? From the time the letter arrives is to the show I recall was like 6 or 7 months. No problem the car will be finished in no time, correct?
So we finish the car the Saturday before the show, and when I mean finish it, I mean finish it, not wiping it with a baby diaper finish it, you know like still working on it, putting the driveshaft in, adjusting the brakes etc, and taking it for its maiden voyage for the first time driving it up and down the block a few times late in the afternoon and then throw it in the old trailer, ( which by itself is old enough to be considered AACA eligible, if they had a trailer class)We leave on Sunday and drive about 2,250 miles heading west to pebble. We arrived on Wednesday after being sidelined for a few hours because we threw a wheel bearing outside of Sacramento. Besides that the trip was uneventful, well besides being bounced around on some horrible California highways. What’s with that? They don’t have snow ( which I gave my snow lesson earlier) and salt out here, what’s with all of those potholes?? They pay enough in taxes that they should have smooth roads…
Oh, I just remembered how we missed our turn into pebble beach and Siri had us driving through downtown Carmel with the truck and trailer on those tight streets and we were trying not to sideswipe all of the exotic cars. There were also some exotic people sporting some fresh restorations if you know what I mean, you know, some people sporting new NOS parts. The pedestrians probably thought Sanford and Son rolled into town and the locals were probably thinking that they should put up the For Sale signs in front of their houses as we tried to navigate back to where we needed to be.
We finally arrived in the parking lot after being on the road for 3 1/2 days, open the trailer and see how dusty the car is from the road trip and start to laugh because you realized how you wasted your time cleaning it really good the night before you left on the journey. So you take the car on its first real ride around the parking lot and the local streets, test driving and doing figure eights and driving like a Shriner in a 4th of July parade and decide what the heck, the car seems to be running well and I know every component was rebuilt- It starts, it stops, it’s running good and since we signed up for the 75 mile tour, we say let’s go for it. We came 2,250 miles, what’s 75 more in a 101 year old car…So you wake up early the next morning, get in line and are thinking to yourself “where did all of these incredible cars come from” because they were all not in the lot yesterday. So you pull away and within the first 15 minutes you see cars pulling over with various problems. Then you are driving up and down mountains with a car with rear wheel brakes only, and you start to think and second guess yourself “did I put every last bolt and cotter pin back on the car, because there were some laying on the table next to the car when I finished it up” and other thoughts like that. This nonsense is going through your mind as you are driving down a mountain road in bumper to bumper tour traffic and we are coming up to a stop sign. Did I mention that the car in front of us is a disappearing top SJ Murphy convertible coupe, and you are thinking, well if the brakes go out I guess Haggerty is buying them a new rear bumper.
After you get to the coffee stop, you figure the rest of the ride is going to be easy since looking at the directions you see it’s pretty much going down to Big Sur and coming back on open roads. Well since we are at the back of the pack everything is fine until we get stuck in traffic coming up the hill on the pacific coast highway going back to pebble. The car really started to act up and wanting to stall and I started pumping the heck out of the mechanical fuel pump on the dash board thinking I am vapor locking and trying to get the fuel pressure up to blow any bubbles out of the system. Luckily the light turns green and the traffic starts to move and as we come up to the traffic light it starts to turn red, and my dad is like “f it” blow though it, we are in an old car we have the right away. Last thing you want is to tie up traffic, creating grid lock on a hill in a broken down antique car looking like a bunch of knuckle heads. After driving Chicago style though the red light, the car started running good again and we entered the Griswold European vacation roundabout road back into pebble. From there it’s all downhill and we had gravity and momentum on our side. As we pull into the lot the car dies and I kid you not we literally roll up to the trailer. First thing that comes to my mind is I broke it, I don’t know to what extent I broke it, and we will have to work our hinds off to get on the field on Sunday. As I get out of the car and start to stretch, I start to think about the red over priced gas station purchased gallon gas can collection 2,250 miles away from us from my dad’s habit of running out of gas, and was thinking it can’t be out of gas, we only went 75 miles….can this car really be that much of a gas hog and drinking that much gas?? No it really can’t…. Can it? Low and behold I tap the bottom of the gas tank and it sounded like a empty drum. I was pretty much out of gas and that’s why it’s seemed like it was vapor locking on the hill. The car was pretty much running on pressurized fumes. Simple fix, put some more gas in it. That was genius level thinking on my behalf. Real cars like drinking gas…..right?
My friend was in for car week, and since we were shacking up in his vacation rental he was at the parking lot waiting for us to arrive. Luckily he ran, and when I mean ran, he got into his rental car that did have gas in it and drove to the gas station to get some more gas to bring it back to us. I thanked him many times for that one. Unfortunately, since he borrowed a gas can, we were not able to buy an over priced red souvenir gas from Carmel to add to our growing gas can collection back home. Dang, now I have to go back to California to get a red souvenir gas can to complete our wall of gas cans from every state that we have ran out of gas in. The gas can collection is quite impressive, mostly from midwestern states. A lot of the cans predate that junky nozzle design so they are true collector pieces. Don’t you all hate those new style nozzles? By the way the gas can collection is Smithsonian quality. It probably covers 30 years of gas can design and technology.
My friend asked if I could take his wife, daughter and boyfriend for a quick ride around the parking lot. Not wanting to impress all of the entrants with my figure eight Shriner driving in the parking lot again, I was telling them that it will not be fun to go for a ride in the parking lot (just to clarify -doing figure eights, those are always fun to do in a parking lot, especially in the snow) let’s drive the 17 mile scenic drive instead. What the heck, we are in California on vacation let’s drive this thing, I have been looking at it for 7 years! You two, hop in the rumble seat! And off we went for another ride.
I spent the next two days hanging out in the parking lot detailing the car, looking over every possible inch to make sure everything is bolted together and cotter pinned, which is was, and just drinking beer and taking it all in as a newbie. Then all of a sudden Sunday morning is here, it’s showtime at the Apollo, at least I can say we restored a car, got accepted to the show, the car ran perfect besides the running out of gas issue, I got to drive the pacific coast highway in the car, drive the 17 mile scenic road, I met some real true car enthusiasts and I got into pebble beach for Free! What is better than that? Judging starts and I am clueless on what to expect. The judges who were as pleasant and nice as can be, asked me all sort of inquiring questions and asked to see pictures of the car before, during and after of the restoration. I was like I really don’t have any after pictures, I just finished it last week! They were laughing at that response.
So after judging i walked around the field checking the incredible iron, taking it all in. When I say incredible iron, I mean it, every car is beyond nice and the quality is top notch. We’re talking fine, really fine machines. I head back to the car to hang out. I ended up answering a lot of questions from spectators who seemed to like the car. Like I stated earlier a lot of true car people were there and taking pictures and asking knowledgeable questions, which I was more than happy to answer.
After a while, as the show progresses, the class leader comes over and tells me to stay near the car and that I might have to move it. I really didn’t know what he meant by that. I start thinking to myself move it where, behind the dumpster? Then he comes back and tells me that I’m one of the 3 picked. I’m thinking to my self sweet! I am going to get a third place award, that’s fantastic. You pull up to the line and the 3 cars that were picked from the class are parked 3 across and the guy, explains how it’s works. The guy has a headset on, clip board, you know the whole deal, he looks the part, so I’m just calling him The Guy. To me he is the original Big Guy. He was very friendly, and very complementary to the 3 of us in our class. By the way, All of the judges, volunteers and staff were class acts all the way around. They really went out of their way to treat everyone kindly.
So how it works for award is- 3rd goes first, then 2nd and finally 1st drives across the ramp to get the awards , but you don’t know who has what until you are called. I’m thinking ok, I’m driving across the ramp first to get my 3rd place. The announcer calls the first name and it’s not me, did he misspeak? Maybe I don’t understand Pebbleease… Then I am all excited thinking this is more sweet I’m getting a second!! Not too shabby. Then…. Then …it’s down to two cars, and before they announce the second place winner, The Big Guy who was explaining to us how the judging works is already pointing at the other car to go across the ramp. We were sitting in the car and it didn’t register right away, and we were like holy blank, ( to keep this pg I am using the word blank in place of a four letter word that is short for the saying, Ship High in Transit) we are getting first! 1st in class at Pebble for a first time entrant!! I was thinking wasn’t this supposed to be rigged? How did we get first??. Maybe I’m not a fluffer after all!
They then park you in the winner’s circle where all of the 1st place class winners get parked. From the winner circle they then pick best in show. So that’s how that works. Some of the class judges did come up to me and congratulate me which I thought was really cool of them to do and that continued the class act of the show which I spoke of earlier. Very nice, very professional. Top notch all the way around.
My Pebble Beach experience is beyond words as a exhibitor. My pebble experience in 2021 was completely unexpected. From start to finish- As a nobody from nowhere in this hobby I found out that just messing around in the garage and hanging out with my friends and tinkering with a car led to the memory of a lifetime. Again I would like to thank all of my friends again.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.-
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What are the Best Looking Prewar FOUR-DOOR Sedans? Custom and Production.
in General Discussion
Posted
I think Derham made 4 of these bodies but I may well be wrong also. The car is a lot more sinister looking in its original configuration.