Packard wins Pebble Beach

[clonelark]

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/pebble-beach-best-of-show-2122

[BobPalma]

'Gee that's nice, Bob; thanks. BP

[jclary]

FANTASTIC ...to me, the absolute golden age of automotive design expression. Regardless of brand, high-end, high-dollar, or lowly, inexpensive transportation...the cars of the thirties are my favorites.

It was also the era in which automobiles were exceeding the quality of the roads in which they were expected to traverse. Back in the day, except for major metropolitan areas...these elegant cars had to negotiate a patchwork gauntlet of unpaved deep rut muddy trails.

I wonder how many more would be around today, if it were not for being beat to pieces and pounded apart by the rough roads of the times. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we discovered a new cheap form of fuel that would allow for such elegant designs unencumbered by the restrictions of wind-tunnel aerodynamics.

[jnormanh]

I wonder how many more would be around today, if it were not for[/B]

It wasn't just rough roads and rust that got many of those cars.

Just after WWII my father was working in Milwaukee. He had the hots for a Deusenberg, and heard that a family there owned two of them. After much searching and following leads, he found himself in a junkyard. The proprietor remembered the two Deuseys.

The sequel to that story was about six or seven years later. Dad and his brother owned a hardware store, and Dad was in the little office, writing a letter.

Uncle Jack stuck his head in and asked "Whatcha' doing"?

"I'm sending this guy a check for a Deusenberg."

"How much?"

"Six hundred bucks."

"Are you NUTS? Do you know how tires cost for that thing?"

Dad tore up the check.



"Yep, we busted 'em up during the war. Couldn't get no parts or tires for 'em, they used too much gas, and scrap iron was bringin' a good price."

[jclary]

It wasn't just rough roads and rust that got many of those cars.

Just after WWII my father was working in Milwaukee. He had the hots for a Deusenberg, and heard that a family there owned two of them. After much searching and following leads, he found himself in a junkyard. The proprietor remembered the two Deuseys.

"Yep, we busted 'em up during the war. Couldn't get no parts or tires for 'em, they used too much gas, and scrap iron was bringin' a good price."

Yep, although I was born in 1944, I have seen old war time news reel footage of the patriotic scrap metal drives. Thinking about how desperate our situation was, how far behind the U.S. was in weapon technology and the need to ramp up production...in the context of the times...the loss of future valuable antiques is very understandable.

Even as late as the early 1960's, I watched my best friend's father cut-up, dismantle, and sell off a huge junk yard full of vintage cars that spanned the 1920's through the late '50's. Even a couple of Pierce Arrow, many Packards, and tons of old combination wood & metal structured vehicles. In fact, my niece and her husband have bought the property and are in the process of building a farm pond on the site. It would be interesting to make one last sweep through that site with a quality metal detector. Wonder how many old chrome and pot metal ornaments will be lost to the ages under the mud?

[studegary]

Those (regular cars of the 1930s) that didn't go to scrap were pretty well used up during the war years and immediately after when you couldn't get a replacement new car which also limited the availability of good used cars.