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This 1919 Pierce Arrow, used by President Woodrow Wilson, was at the Art of the Car Concours. Author photo
Yesterday, we had a look at several of the great late-1940s-1960s cars that were on display at the 2010 Art of the Car Concours event, which was held last weekend at the Kansas City Art Institute. And if you thought those were nice cars, hang on. Because today, we’re getting into the big, pre-war Classics—Packards, Cords, Pierce Arrows, and Auburns, to name a few. These are the kind of cars people think about when they hear the word “Concours”. We’re talking about serious machines here; the cars you might expect to see on the lawn at Pebble Beach.
Top was raised for President Wilson's top hat. Author photo
The Mac-Daddy of the event had to be the 1919 Pierce Arrow limousine that was used by President Woodrow Wilson. This gargantuan would dwarf, say, a Chevy Suburban, but still manages to ooze style from every pore. One of the more interesting aspects of this car is that even though the rear doors were huge, they still arched the top of the door even further so the President could experience smooth ingress and egress without catching his ever-present top hat. President Obama could probably get in this car while giving his daughter Sasha a piggyback ride. The prominent Pierce Arrow was in Kansas City thanks to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum in Staunton, Va.
These were not the normal cars you would expect to see at the local cruise-in. When was the last time you saw a ’32 Packard Roadster at the “every third Friday” Sonic get-together? There were still several 1957 Chevrolets on display, though—it’s almost impossible to assemble a group of vintage cars without them.
And for the most part, it wasn’t the same group of spectators, either. Yeah, the normal group of gear heads were milling around in the crowd. How could they not be? This was one nice gathering of vehicles. But there were plenty of people that were there more for the “Art” part of the “Art of the Car” title than the “Car” part. There were several people that were perfectly content at this show that probably wouldn’t have even considered enduring the sweltering heat of the day had this event just been billed as “big car show in the community center parking lot with 50/50 raffle”.
And that’s OK. Cars have a way of bringing all types of people together. Usually, it seems to be the same types of people, but it’s good to have an event that branched out to a different crowd. And the fact that the normal car junkies had an opportunity to see cars that are normally hidden in the private garages of the wealthy or far-away museums made it even better.
Take a look at the slideshow below to see some of the crown jewel Classics at the 2010 Art of the Concours event. And in case you missed it yesterday, don’t forget to check out the later-model post-war beauties as well. These are definitely cars that are worth the time to study and enjoy.
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CLICK ON THE SLIDESHOW BELOW TO SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THE PRE-WAR CLASSIC VEHICLES ON DISPLAY AT THE 2010 ART OF THE CAR CONCOURS SHOW.
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Comments
Great pictures. When I got home and looked at my pictures of the show i was dissapointed. Thanks for taking so many great pictures. Did you have to move people out of the way to get a shot of the car? Cattle prod would have been handy.
Yeah, there were lots of people there! Pretty hard to get a clear shot sometimes!
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