Mesh New England Spring 2019 Issue

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mesh

THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

SPRING 2019 2017

new england

AMELIA ISLAND CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE OPEN HOUSE: AUTOMOTIVE RESTORATIONS INC. NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW

OUR BENCH TEAM Renowned restorer Paul Russell knows the value of a college degree. That’s why he’s a fan of McPherson College in Kansas, the only school in the country where you can earn a bachelor’s degree in auto restoration technology and get right into the game.

IN THIS IS SUE


1953 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible $95,000
 Engine: 8 Cylinder Transmission: Automatic Exterior Color: Blue Interior Color: Red Mileage: 83,392 Miles Stock Number: 267X VIN: 536267X 1959 Ferrari 250/500 TRC DK Engineering Call for Our Price Engine: 12 Cylinder Transmission: Manual Exterior Color: Red Interior Color: Black Stock Number: 2423 VIN: 2423

1963 Chevrolet Corvette Split Window $129,500 Engine: 327/300HP Transmission: Manual Exterior Color: Black Interior Color: Saddle Mileage: 10,821 Miles Stock Number: 6985 VIN: 30837S106985

2012 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG $179,500 Engine: 8 Cylinder Transmission: Automatic Exterior Color: AMG Le Mans Red Interior Color: Classic Red/Black designo Mileage: 2,500 Stock Number: 9282 VIN: WDDRJ7HA4CA009282

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BUYS, SELLS, CONSIGNS, TRADES, SERVICES AND RESTORES SPORTS, EXOTICS, CLASSICS AND LATE MODEL AUTOMOBILES

1961 Renault 4CV Jolly Beach Car $95,000 Engine: 4 Cylinder Transmission: Manual Exterior Color: Green Stock Number: 7778 VIN: 3607778

1958 AC Ace Bristol Roadster $385,000 Engine: 8 Cylinder Transmission: Manual Exterior Color: Red Interior Color: Black leather Mileage: 74,957 Miles Stock Number: x331 VIN: BEX331 1967 Lotus Elan $42,500 Engine: 4 Cylinder Transmission: Manual Exterior Color: Green Interior Color: Black Mileage: 38,282 Miles Stock Number: 6274 VIN: 366274 FOLLOW WAYNE CARINI IN CHASING CLASSIC CARS WEDNESDAYS AT 9:00PM ET ON VELOCITY BY DISCOVERY


from the publisher

IN THIS ISSUE, WE COVER SOME SERIOUS GROUND. It seems that ever since all of us (or most of us) became connected through the Internet, I have been constantly reminded that our automobile hobby is on a slow trajectory downward, that interest in cars is waning. It is quite a diverse hobby when you consider all the people it affects through either a vocation or an avocation, or in some cases both. My reasoning comes from looking around at life in general and asking myself, “Where is the bench team?” That applies to many areas, but I’ll stick with the collector car world here. Shop class has all but disappeared from high school curricula, as have art and music programs, for that matter. Perhaps there is now a generation (or two) that has never really had the desire to go anywhere and is content living a coddled, comfy life at home with mom and dad well into adulthood, looking down at technology, not up at life. When I was young, getting my mesh driver’s license was my first /meSH/ priority. It meant freedom, and as a verb: (of the teeth of a gearwheel) lock together or be with freedom came expression. engaged with another gearwheel. Now, buying a car for most is “one gear meshes with the input gear” like buying an appliance, not synonyms: engage, be engaged, mate, connect, something that is an exciting lock, interlock. process or an expression of oneself. Recently, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial titled “Driving? The Kids Are So Over It.” Great. All is not lost though. I can see some redemption in grass roots efforts like that of Rick Theriault and the Future Farmers Association tractor-restoration program at Wamogo Regional High School in Litchfield, Connecticut. And in Mark Johnson’s work restoring Model Ts at the Klingberg School in New Britian, Connecticut. On a larger scale, there is McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas. It stands alone as the only school to provide a bachelor’s degree program in automotive restoration technology. This leads us to a very insightful discussion with Paul Russell from Paul Russell and Company of Essex, Massachusetts, who has been championing McPherson College since the early 2000s. Russell now employs more than a few of the school’s graduates to keep his world-class restoration facility at the top of the industry, and he is chairman of McPherson College’s advisory committee. Check out our cover story, starting on page 60, to read about Russell’s interest in and insight into this school. In the next issue, we’ll pay a visit to the Genius Garage in Bowling Green, Ohio.

ON THE COVER: A 1959 Porsche RSK 718 at Paul Russell and Company photo by Russ Rocknak

publisher

Russ Rocknak copy editor

Larry Bean technical editor

Mark Hurwitz contributing photographers

Marshall Buck, Luke Rocknak, Russ Rocknak, Josh Sweeney, Rich Taylor social media/web

Navadise Media

advertising inquiries Russ Rocknak 603.759.4676 rsr@meshnewengland.com subscription and editorial inquiries Russ Rocknak 603.759.4676 rsr@meshnewengland.com meshnewengland.com

Speed safely,

Russ Rocknak publisher, Mesh New England

Mesh New England is published six times a year by © 2019 RSR Media Group, Inc., P.O. Box 786, Bath, ME 04530 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the publisher.

Printed by GHP Media, West Haven, CT

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THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY


meshnewengland spring 2019 volume vii, number ii

contributors In the late 1970s and early ’80s, while working in TV production, Marshall Buck was also custom-building model cars for himself and a few select customers, one of whom convinced Buck to go into model-making full-time (that gentleman remains a client to this day). Hence, in 1982, Buck founded Creative

Miniature Associates, now CMA Models Inc. Since the start of CMA, he has been involved with the finest high-end automotive miniatures as a collector, model maker, manufacturer and boutique dealer, catering to collectors worldwide. For more than 30 years, Buck also has been authoring feature articles and regular columns on models and collecting for various publications, including Cavallino, Vintage Motorsport, and Sports Car Market, as well as Mesh New England. He is also cofounder and editor of AutoMobilia Magazine. Master restorer Wayne Carini is best known for his shop’s restoration work, but for the past 13 years he has also been known for his television show Chasing Classic Cars, which is shown in 42 countries and is about to air its 200th episode. Carini was born into the restoration business, with his father founding the Model A Restorers Club in 1951, the year Wayne was born. Eight years later, Carini was sanding cars at his father’s shop and has never stopped. Today, Carini enjoys filming his TV show, traveling the world and meeting fellow car friends, and working with 4

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Impala and a not-so-much 1966 Mustang. She traces her love of American muscle

his crew restoring cars for his customers. Carini and his family live on a farm in rural Connecticut. His daughter Kimberly was diagnosed with autism at an early age. Because of Kimberly’s autism, Wayne and the entire family have made helping autism charities a major part of their lives.

Jeff DeMarey is on the Classic Car Club of America’s national board of directors, and he is the director of the New England region CCCA. For nearly 30 years, he has run a specialty insurance agency for classic and collectible cars, Stonewall Insurance Group in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. He is also a frequent judge at classic car shows, including the Greenwich Concours (for the last 18 years), the Elegance at Hershey, the Boston Cup (for the last nine years), and scores of Classic Car Club of America events. DeMarey has planned many successful car events throughout the years, including most recently the CCCA New England Caravan in 2016. He is also a “Chowderhead,” a proud member of the infamous Madison Avenue Sports Car Driving and Chowder Society.

Miranda McDonald is the proud owner of a fully restored 1967 Chevrolet SPRING 2019

to when she was a little girl, sitting in her neighbors’ driveways and sketching the logos of their cars’ grilles and hubcaps. She has driven cross-country twice, lived in six states, and traveled through all but eight states. She has decided that, by far, Maine is the best place. As the owner of Focus Firearms Instruction & Safety Training, McDonald works with people just beginning in the shooting sports and offers situational-awareness and defensive-tactics training. She spends her free time with her two lovely daughters (and teaches them how to change the oil) and enjoys tasting new whiskeys.

Cory “C Pez” Pesaturo has an ongoing musical relationship with the Red Bull F1 team, which has led to his friendships with many F1

drivers. He is the only person to ever win the trio of world championships on acoustic, digital and jazz accordion, and he is the only accordion graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music. Pesaturo’s resumé includes four performances at the White House for President and Mrs. Clinton. His first was when he was 12, making him the

youngest person ever to perform at a State Dinner. At 16, he performed with the Brockton Symphony Orchestra and became the youngest accordionist ever to solo with a symphony orchestra in the United States.

Josh Sweeney’s passion for cars and photography was obvious by the time he was 6 years old, when he would keep himself busy by taking pictures of model cars with his Mickey Mouse camera. He eventually got hold of a real camera and started photographing everything,

giving him a great eye for composition and detail. A friend introduced him to executive director Sheldon Steele and the staff at Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he became an intern and photographed a wide array of collector cars. Today, he does work for Lamborghini, Amelia Island Concours, Mecum, RM Sotheby’s and Bonhams, as well as Mesh New England and Larz Anderson. From track events to luxury galas, you will find Sweeney capturing the moment. Straight from graduate school, Rich Taylor started out as managing editor of Car and Driver. Since then, he’s published more than 5,000 magazine articles, 27 books and hundreds of special sections for Car and Driver, Popular Mechanics, New York Times and other clients. Taylor has won motorcycle and automobile races everywhere from Laguna Seca to Daytona

to the Nürburgring. He has vintage-raced his own Devin SS, Kellison J-4R and B-production 1967 Corvette, and he won an SCCA Championship with a Mazda RX-7. Taylor’s restoration shop, Minisport, has created cars that have been displayed at SEMA and the Detroit and New York auto shows. He and his wife, Jean, have raised more than $2 million for North American charities through Vintage Rallies Inc., which has organized over 100 vintage car rallies.

Linda Zukauskas has always loved cars. She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor’s in English before working as a tech writer for software development firms, then as a freelance writer. While interviewing the owner of a small automotive shop for a local newspaper feature, she was thrilled to accept his invitation to join his vintage racing crew. She took on the title of CCO (Chief Cleaning Officer). She’s having a blast writing about the many ways to enjoy cars— racing, restoring, building, buying, selling, showing— but, for her, it all comes down to amazing stories about the wonderful people she is honored to meet and call friends.

THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

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WINTER 2019

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You have a passion for cars. So do we.

mesh

THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

- Herb Chambers

SPRING 2019

new england

p.32

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from the publisher Welcome from Russ Rocknak.

10 short shifts Our contributors discuss a variety of topics: Ah, Nuts!, The Max

Verstappen You Don’t Know, and A Ghost Ride.

12 nuts & bolts Wayne Carini offers some of the best tried-and-true transportation

rules or thumb that he follows for his own cars as well as his clients’ cars.

20 a great drive MNE Contributor Rich Taylor is deeply rooted in the Greenwich

Concours d’Elegance and shares with us a little of the history of the concours as well as places to see and stay all around the Greenwich area.

28 model review Marshall Buck, our master modeler extraordinaire, reviews a 1:18 scale

Our passion for cars can not only be seen through the car buying experience, but the maintenance of your vehicle as well.

32 calendar of events Up-to-date events including the top auto shows, club gather ings, races and road rallies in New England and beyond. 34 event highlights A celebration of highlights from the latest auto shows, rallies

and races that take place in the Northeast.

52 Back on Track We visit the Skip Barber Racing School to see what’s going on under

With our Amazing Service Centers, we’ll help keep your car running for years to come.

p.38

1959 Le Mans–Winning Aston Martin DBR1 produced by Spark Model.

the new management, and we look back at how the school got where it is today.

58 Born a Scrambling Man Back in the 1960s and ’70s, Charlie Vincent of Warren,

Maine, competed in the grueling International Six-Day Trials on the Isle of Man and won two gold medals.

64 Our Bench Team Renowned restorer Paul Russell knows the value of a college

degree. That’s why he’s a fan of McPherson College in Kansas, the only school in the country where you can earn a bachelor’s degree in auto restoration technology and get right into the game.

last word

p.44

HERB CHAMBERS.COM

WWW.MESHNEWENGLAND.COM

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MESH NEW ENGLAND

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short shifts

Ah, Nuts!

by Jeff DeMarey

THERE IS NOTHING LIKE pulling out your pride

Buick GNX before storage

Buick GNX after storage, as a hard-candy depot

Soy-based wire coatings

and joy to go for a ride after a long winter’s hibernation. But what if, before you start the ride, you lift the hood and find large volumes of nuts or pine cones or a whole convenience store aisle’s worth of hard candy, even though you thought you had checked all the boxes of car storage 101? It is painfully obvious at this point that something has been hibernating in your car and using it as a food store. I had a client who left his daily driver alone in the driveway for just three days. But that was long enough for a critter to fill the engine bay with pine cones. Some forward-thinking European manufacturers, including BMW and Volkswagen, produce their automobiles with more environmentally friendly components, such as soy-based coatings on wires and wiring looms. It’s a great idea for when the car reaches the end of its life cycle, but it’s like offering a roll of cherry Lifesavers to mice, chipmunks and other vermin. Over the course of the winter, or in some cases in just a couple of days, they will eat right through the tasty wire coating. If you decide to use an airport hangar to store your car, be aware that for some reason mice really like to spend the winter in this type of setting. Be sure that when you store your car, you follow procedures such as those outlined by Wayne Carini in his Nuts & Bolts column in the Winter 2019 issue of MNE. If for some reason an animal takes up residence in your car over the winter, you may be surprised to find that this type of hazard is not covered under your standard auto insurance plan. Your policy has to include vermin coverage. Hagerty offers this type of coverage, as does American Collector. Protecting our cars includes having the right insurance coverage. Check yours today

Fill’er up with the high-test pinecones, please.

The Max Verstappen You Don’t Know Thoughts from a three-time world champion accordionist who has been in the paddock eight times. by Cory Pesaturo

N

o, this is not another story about how Max Verstappen is a generational talent, how for years he has been the No.1 driver on the grid, how he is the “Senna of today.”

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I wrote an article called “Max’s Ceiling Is Senna” before MV33 even started his first Formula 1 race in March 2015, and I could write a small book on his blocking skills, his out-braking on the outside skills, and his intuition

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to make moves that no one else has ever made. But this story is about the lighter side of Verstappen. It’s a glimpse at who he is when he’s off-camera and out of the spotlight. The “Dutch kid” is sometimes seen as having a deadpan, cocky, brash, computer-type personality. I can tell you from the eight times that I’ve met him, in a variety of settings, that none of those adjectives accurately describes how he acts when

he’s out from behind the wheel. In fact, of all the drivers in the paddock, he may be the most genuine, and he’s as fun as the King of Fun, Daniel Ricciardo. He always greets me with a “Hey, what’s up?” And in the paddock after a race last year, he saved me from getting run over by a forklift. Verstappen never treats you like you are below him, unlike, say, Lewis Hamilton, who walks around the paddock like he owns the place. I first got to know Verstappen at a private party that Helmut Marko hosted at his house in the Alps after the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix. He was everything your average 17-year-older is— and he hasn’t changed much. After the party, with Verstappen sitting in my passenger seat, singing out the open window, I chased Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr. (with his legendary rally-racing father, Carlos Sr., as his passenger) down the mountain road. It was only my fifth day of driving a standard, so I may be more proud of this feat than of earning my accordion world titles. If you want to see what Verstappen is really like, watch any of the reality TV–style Red Bull Racing videos that show him and Ricciardo answering questions. The guy who is constantly laughing and joking in those videos? That’s the real Verstappen. His conversations and comments on the team radio during a race also reveal Verstappen’s true personality. My favorite example comes from lap 26 of the 2018 US Grand Prix. He had lost a podium finish the previous year when a pass he made on the final lap to grab third place from Kimi Räikkönen was deemed illegal. (Any fantastic pass on the final lap of an F1 race should be legal!) The pass, on the inside curb of turn 17,

THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

was the type of move you pull off only in a video game. In the 2018 race, Verstappen passed Sebastian Vettel on the outside of the same turn and immediately came on the radio to say, “If it’s not allowed on the inside, we go around the outside.” While driving an F1 car in a race in which he would finish second after starting in the 18th spot, he somehow had enough spare RAM in his brain for comedy and history. Verstappen’s in-car “zone” is so different from those of other legends, including the ultraserious don’t-talk-to-me zones of Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, the constantly calculating Alain Prost zone, and the Zen zone of Jackie Stewart. Verstappen’s style is closer to those of Vettel (early in his career) and Ricciardo.

he said. “You’ve never created that particular improvisation, but you’ve created ones with similar aspects, and you just go by instinct, using all the tools you’ve harnessed and practiced, and you trust yourself to execute it on the hard work you’ve done.” Not a bad answer from someone who speaks English as a second language, does not play music, and certainly doesn’t improvise music. For a different Red Bull party, the one that followed the 2015 US Grand Prix, I was instructed to go to the location early and work some magic to get Max in. He was only 18 at the time, and he looked 18. I got him in (I’m Italian, after all!), and then I spent most of the night finding beer for his father, the former F1 driver Jos Verstappen, and his boys. Jos drinks only beer, and none of the free alcohol at the party was beer. Like his son, Jos is a friendly person who is fun to be around. His favorite song is “The Green, Green Grass of Home.” I cannot wait to see how many more 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix–type drives Verstappen has in store for us. At that party at Marko’s house in 2015, I told him, “Whatever you do,

‘‘

“In fact, of all the drivers in the paddock, he may be the most genuine, and he’s as fun as the King of Fun, Daniel Ricciardo.” At the Red Bull party following the 2017 US Grand Prix (where Lindsey Vonn taught Verstappen and me a few party tricks that won’t be discussed here), I asked Verstappen how he came up with the move on Räikkönen— or any move that he seems to create on the spot, such as the outside pass at Blanchimont on Felipe Nasr in the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix. “Well, it’s like how you improvise 1,000 notes a minute on your accordion,” WWW.MESHNEWENGLAND.COM

Max, keep your head down. Please keep your head down. I believe your ceiling is Senna, and the only thing that can stop you is your getting a big head.” I feel that Verstappen hasn’t gotten a big head—even though many don’t like what they see from him in interviews on TV— and that’s why, since joining Red Bull Racing and consistently driving the fifth- or sixth-best car on the grid, he continues to achieve podium finishes.

A Ghost Ride

by Miranda McDonald

AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY,” “Hard Hat Required Beyond this Point,” “Absolutely No Trespassing.” Though the gate they were posted on was open, the three signs bearing these warnings seemed to scowl at my friend and me as we sat in my 1967 Chevy Impala. I glanced over at her, and she sighed and arched an eyebrow in return. Michele has known me since high school, so there was no doubt in her mind about what would happen next. Sure enough, I revved the engine for courage and rolled through the gate. I hadn’t driven more than 300 miles to turn around now. The gate was an opening in the chain-link fence surrounding the 90-acre property at the base of the now-demolished Tappan Zee Bridge in Tarrytown, New York. This was the site of a General Motors plant until 1999, when the facility was razed. “Progress” continues its pace, and so the spot soon will be home to hotels and shops. As my car, nearly 16 feet of gleaming black American steel, rolled over the rough pavement, a construction foreman came out of a nearby trailer. When I explained that I was here to see the site of the old plant—where my Impala had rolled off the line in October 1966—a large grin broke over his face. I invited him into the car, and he guided us to the farthest corner of the lot, just a few feet from the edge of the Hudson River. “Here, and here,” he pointed to the ground with his steel-toed boot. I nodded and pretended I could see the faded footprint of the building, but I could see only broken asphalt. “My grandpa worked at this plant,” he continued. “Come noon time, he and his buddies would head up to the bar on the hill, have a few, and come back to finish their day on the line. “Often,” he added with a chuckle, “their coffee cups contained what they didn’t have time to drink at lunch.” At its peak, the plant employed 2,100 workers and provided the town with 49 percent of its revenue base. “I wish he was here to see your car,” the foreman added wistfully. The three of us scoured the area, seeking some sort of memento of what once was—a bolt, a scrap of metal, and old brick. I wanted something to put on my shelf to remember this moment when, after completing a three-year restoration, I brought my car back to where she was born over 50 years ago. But any remnants of the plant were gone, the site wiped clean like a scrubbed blackboard. We took pictures and chatted with the foreman a bit longer, and then we were on our way. Michele and I rode in silence for a while, contemplating how you can never really go home again.

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&

nuts bolts by Wayne Carini

PHOTOS BY RUSS ROCKNAK

Bruce Canepa brought a collection of very special Porsches to the Art In Motion event held in October at the Monticello Motor Club, in Monticello, New York. Canepa’s team used the Intercity Lines rig as its home base during the event. Wayne Carini (below) does the same when he brings his show on the road.

Getting It There, Safely Wayne Carini follows a few tried-and-true rules to make sure his cars as well as his clients’ cars are transported on time and unscathed.

S

pring is finally here. The car season is upon us, and with all the car shows, concours and auctions, cars are moving around throughout the Northeast and well beyond. If you are thinking about transporting your car either locally or out to the West Coast, you have to think about transportation. There are several great ways to achieve this depending on what your transportation needs may be, but this is what we do. My general rule is if I go to a local event, I drive my car to it—no matter what the event is. If it is within a 20-mile radius, I love driving my car there. If I go outside that 20-mile radius, I will trailer the car to the event, or close to the event. I typically find a place to park that’s about a mile from the venue, unload my car, and drive it from there. I really don’t like showing up in someone’s driveway with my trailer.

Hauling It Yourself Hauling it yourself is always a great alternative, and there are a lot of things to consider here, starting with the trailer itself. There 12

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are open trailers and enclosed trailers that can haul a single car or multiple cars. Once you have chosen the trailer that best suits your needs, you have to figure out what to tow it with, and there are many choices that will certainly more than fit the bill. Going this route for the casual weekend user can be expensive, but if it is an ultimate show car, it is really the only way to go. I used to haul all of my cars across the country myself, down to Florida, out to the Midwest and on to California. But as you get older, time management becomes a big concern. You have so many things going on in your life that it doesn’t make sense to haul your own car to and from a show. So now I’ll go only about 300 miles with my cars—I’ll haul them to Hershey.

Single and Multiple Cars If we are going to a concours and are bringing multiple cars beyond the 300-mile threshold, I will get on the phone and talk to one of my trusted car carriers, such as Intercity Lines. It is very important to establish a great working relationship with

EVERY PART YOU BUY IS ISGUARANTEED FOR LIFE EVERY PART YOU BUY GUARANTEED FOR LIFE a car carrier early on, so that you have a trusted entity you can work with. There are a few we use depending on the application. If we need a single-car trailer, we’ll call Yerardi Transportation in Massachusetts or Classic Auto Transportation, which is based in Connecticut. For a big rig that hauls multiple cars at once, there’s Intercity Lines, another Massachusetts company. “Developing a great relationship with my customers is paramount to my success,” says Ted Yerardi, the owner and operator of Yerardi Transportation. “I have clients that give me the codes to their driveway gates and keys to their garages and trust me to get the job done and the job done right. It is an honor to do business with my clients—and there is a lot of trust involved in getting their vehicles from point A to point B, without any issues and on time.” THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

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We use these companies to get our cars dependably to and from shows, and we also use them to haul clients’ cars to our facilities for repairs. We have clients who want to bring their car in for a freshening up for the season, and they want to drive it in. However, we recommend that you have the car hauled to us in an enclosed carrier due to all the sand and salt on the roads at this time of year. There are certain circumstances that require transport. For example, the other day we picked up a 1987 Porsche 930 Turbo that had been sitting in a garage for about eight years. We sent our own winched flatbed trailer and brought it to the shop without anybody trying to start it until we had gone through all of the systems. We also use car-carrier companies to transport cars once they are sold to a client. After the car is purchased, we like to detail the car and have it brought right to the new owner’s house, so it doesn’t get dirty running on the road or risk having anything more serious happen to it. Some people come to us and pick up their car, but we highly recommend having it brought right to your house.

The Big Shows Let’s say that we are going to Pebble Beach, and we are bringing enough cars to fill an entire truck—three auction cars and three show cars will fill a truck. We rely on the carrier to deliver the cars properly to their destination, and then the truck and trailer become our home base for the week. We can leave a car in the trailer, and the carrier company will take it out for us to run the tour. Afterward, 14

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SPRING 2019

we can clean it and put it back in the trailer. It’s great to have this convenience when you are at an event. If we didn’t have this option, if the carrier company had just dropped off the car, what would we do with it in the “in-between” times? Just covering up the car and leaving it in a parking lot doesn’t sound too entertaining to me, especially if it is a very expensive show car. Instead, we can lock it up in the trailer, safe and sound. We also bring our own tools, touch-up paint and detailing materials, and we end up using the trailer as our shop. It really works out well for us, and I can’t imagine doing it any other way. The car-carrier companies offer several different packages for the big shows like Pebble Beach. I have used Intercity Lines exclusively for over 30 years now, and I really like having the truck for the whole block of time. I really depend on it. “We offer door-to-door transport for your vehicle, so when our truck comes to pick up your car, the same driver and the same truck will be with your car the whole time of travel—we don’t use terminals,” says Dean Wilson, vice president of Intercity Lines. “Our typical delivery time is seven to 10 days. For those delivery companies that use terminals, the delivery times can be three weeks of longer, because they are hubbing their cars to get a more streamlined load. When you go with a door-to-door service like ours, your delivery time is much less, and the attention given to your car is a lot more focused, given it is one driver handling the car the whole time. This is very comforting to a lot of our clients.” THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

PHOTO BY JOSH SWEENEY/SFD

KACHEL MOTOR COMPANY

Maintenance & Upgrades Custom Fabrication Race Prep/ Track Support Dyno Cell KMC prides itself on Kachel Motor Company has All KMC team members The SuperFlow AutoDyn furnishing the highest level an in-house fabrication shop are aligned, engaged, and 30 AWD chassis dyno makes of honest, professional and to ensure you nothing but the focused on achieving your for extremely accurate thorough service to every best to satisfy your automo- automotive goals on the and repeatable testing customer. tive dreams. street or race track. and tuning.

KACHEL MOTOR COMPANY

425 Canal St, South Lawrence, MA 01840

617.759.8973

kmcauto.com


Vintage

Seal Cove Auto Museum Exploring History Through a Collection of Brass Era Automobiles & Motorcycles

Rallies

8O JACKSON HILL ROAD SHARON, CT O6O69 86O-364-O311 www.vintagerallies.com

MOUNTAIN MILLE

May 19-24, 2O19 The Homestead, The Greenbrier & West Virginia!

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DEDICATED TO THE GRAND CLASSIC ERA

When you find a transporter you can rely on, it’s for different reasons—they don’t just drive the truck well. It’s because you can say, “This is the car. It is at this location, and this is what is wrong with the car and the reason it is coming to us.” And that’s it. In other words, the driver is not going to call you from the location and say, “Did you know this car doesn’t run? How do you expect me to get the car out of this garage?” These guys just figure it out. You get a knowledgeable person who can understand the car they are working with—once again, they don’t just drive the truck well. We hire transporters that have the ability to take care of the car, especially if there are any issues. They are real car people and have their own tools and can figure things out. This, to me, is worth its weight in gold.

Out to Lunch

Classic Car Club of America New England Region COME FOR THE CARS, STAY FOR THE PEOPLE www.cccaner.com

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Hiring the wrong transporter can be a nightmare. A gentleman bought a Porsche 911 from us on a Thursday and immediately wire-transferred the money, explaining that he wanted to bring the car to an event that Saturday. He basically said, “If I can’t have this car delivered to me by Saturday, I don’t want it.” I called my regular transport guys, and they told me the schedule was too tight, that they couldn’t get it done in time. I scrambled to find a solution. I finally found a guy who said he would be at our shop that afternoon and guaranteed delivery by noon that Saturday. When he arrived to pick up the car, he started to move the other cars in and out of the trailer so that they were lined up in the orTHE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

der they were going to be dropped off. I should have caught on that this could be a bad situation when the driver asked me where he could grab some lunch. I told him a half-mile up the road, and he jumped into one of the cars he was delivering and drove off to get himself a sandwich. By 3 o’clock on Saturday, my client was lighting up my phone, asking where his car was. I tried getting in touch with the truck driver to no avail. I tried again on Sunday and again on Monday morning. Still nothing. Finally, on Monday afternoon, I got a call from him. I asked him where he was, and he said he was about 20 miles from my client’s house and was getting ready to make delivery of the 911. He explained that he had a little issue along the way. His wife threw him out of the house, and he drove back to Ohio to patch things up before making any deliveries. I should have trusted my instincts and canceled the transaction when the driver asked about lunch. Lucky for us, the 911’s new owner absolutely loved the car and soon got over the delay and crushed expectations for his show that Saturday. As a matter of fact, he has bought five more cars from us since his 911 took a detour to Ohio.

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SPRING 2019

MESH NEW ENGLAND

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a great drive

Sun Rises. Revs Climb. Adrenaline Rush. This is the day. Your chance to live out the dream you’ve been chasing ever since you first got behind the wheel. This is what real feels like. You’re at the Skip Barber Racing School… buckling in for the drive of your life.

Greenwich and the Concourse d’Elegance words by Rich Taylor

B

In 2018, we encouraged collectors Chuck Schoendorf and Tom Cotter to spearhead a Briggs Cunningham tribute that ultimatelyLakeville Pond resulted in 43 Cunningham cars on display. I organized a separate circle of eight cars built by John Fitch, Cunningham’s close The 2018 Bonhams auction at Greenwich friend and racing partner. Jaguar expert 2, plus a couple of special displays that will Brian Beni put together a world-class SS be shown all weekend. Andrea and Marella display. Miles Collier was our grand marshal. Put it all together, and 2018 was an Rivolta Zagato are the 2019 honorees, out-of-the-park home run. It’s going to get traveling from Rho, Lombardy, to celebrate even better! Carrozzeria Zagato’s centennial at Greenwich Concours. For 2019, we’ll have roughly 150 American cars displayed on Saturday, June 1, and Our special Zagato display will include 150 import cars displayed on Sunday, June everything from a 1927 Alfa-Romeo 6C-1500 to a new Viper-based Alfa TZ3 Stradale. In all, there will be more than 40 unique cars carrying Zagato’s trademark lightweight, aerodynamic bodywork. Chuck Schoendorf has organized the Cars of Wacky Arnolt—Arnolt-Bristol, Arnolt-MG, Arnolt-Aston Martin, ArnoltBentley—a world-class group of two-dozen rare hybrids built by an American company using British mechanicals and Italian Bertone bodywork. The Arnolts will be on display all weekend, along with a knockout collection of exotic supercars and a display of rare orphan motorcycles. Special classes on Saturday include pre-World War I American Brass, American Orphan Marques and American Super2018 Greenwich Councours Grand Marshal Miles Collier with a 1962 Maserati charged Cars. On Sunday, in addition to the

ruce and Genia Wennerstrom started Greenwich Concours d’Elegance 24 years ago. After Genia died, in 2011, and Bruce, in 2015, their daughter-in-law Mary Wennerstrom took over. A former fashion model and marketing professional, Mary is smart, nice, hardworking, vivacious and pretty. She’s cleverly surrounded herself with expert advisors, including Rupert Banner and Eric Minoff of Bonhams, Kent Bain of Automotive Restorations, Charles Mallory of Delamar Hotels, Buzz Kanter of American Iron magazine, Murray Smith of Lime Rock Historics and myself.

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THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

Lime Rock Park is a legendary 1.5 mile road racing track set in the gorgeous Litchfield Hills of Northwestern Connecticut. For over 60 years, this has been the home of spectacular road racing. Consider this your invitation to become part of this great history by enrolling in the Skip Barber Racing School.

866-932-1949

skipbarber.com

More information and school dates are a click or a phone call away at skipbarber.com. We’ll see you at Lime Rock!


2019NEWENGLANDMESH AD 2/2/19 12:49 PM

May 31st – June 2nd, 2019

2019 will feature special classes of Zagato, Bentley, Arnolt, Pre-War Supercharged Cars & Orphan Marques

usual classes, we’ll have the special Arnolt, Zagato, supercar and orphan motorcycle displays, as well as major groups of rare Bentleys and Italian cars. In addition, Jean and I are organizing the Greenwich Grand Tour for Friday, May 31. There will be a special concours program Friday evening at the nearby Greenwich Film Festival, a Bonhams cocktail party Friday evening, auction cars on display Saturday and Sunday, a worldclass Bonhams auction Sunday afternoon during the concours, and a party Saturday evening at the Delamar. Yes, it’s a full weekend of car stuff. Greenwich Concours and the Bonhams auction will be held at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, which is at exit 3 off of I-95. The park is a peninsula that juts out into Greenwich Harbor, with Greenwich Yacht Club to the right and Indian Harbor Yacht Club to the left. It’s a beautiful spot, easily The circa-1732 Bush-Holley House

Charitable Beneficiaries – Americares and The Hometown Foundation For more information please visit: www.greenwichconcours.com

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SPRING 2019

automobile This 1953 Ferrari 166 MM Spyder by Oblin is the only example in the world, but at ARI we know that every classic, regardless of production numbers, deserves the same respect as this one-off Ferrari. With 40 years of experience completing award-winning restorations, ARI has built its reputation providing our clients with the highest standard in automotive care. From Lotus to Bugatti, our world renowned staff is the only tool you need to take home best in show. Complete Restorations | Classic Vehicle Maintenance | Engine Rebuilding Upholstery | Paint and Body Work | Performance Modifications Coachwork | Sale and Acquisitions | Storage

accessible from I-95 and the Metro North Greenwich train station, which is a block away from both the concours and downtown Greenwich. In addition to the concours, there’s lots to see and do around Greenwich. One block from the concours site is the Bruce Museum (203-869-0376, brucemuseum.org), an art and natural history museum housed in an 1853 mansion. If you bring your kids with you and they get “car-ed out,” there’s a children’s playground across the street from the Bruce Museum where they can let off steam. A short drive away are Bruce Park and Greenwich Point Park, both scenic and quiet spots to escape the concours crowds. There’s also the Bush-Holley House, a 1732 National Historic Landmark that was once the focus for the Cos Cob Art Colony and is now the home of the Greenwich Historical Society (203-869-6899, greenwichhistory.org). Concours aside, Downtown Greenwich is where the action is. Greenwich Avenue is Connecticut’s version of Rodeo Drive. THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

1953 Ferrari 166 MM Spyder proudly restored by Automotive Restorations, Inc. Photography by Dan Savinelli

100 Lupes Dr. Stratford, CT 06615 | (203) 377-6745 | automotiverestorations.com


Ever Dream Of Racing A Porsche 911 RSR? Now you can. A racing simulator from VR Motion Labs puts you in the car, at the track and in the race. With laser scanned tracks and accurate telemetry driving the motion, each car feels impressively realistic. Practice or race online anytime you want, at almost any track in the world, in any kind of weather, in a wide variety of cars, all from your own home. We design and build custom racing simulators that include 3DOF motion tuned for precise synchronization with a high resolution VR headset. Simulator rentals are also available for training purposes. See our website or call for details : 617-365-3231

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VR Motion Labs Racing Simulators

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Packed within a neighborhood that’s roughly six blocks long and four blocks wide is everything from Saks Fifth Avenue to Restoration Hardware, Simon Pearce to Tory Burch, Brooks Brothers to a Lexus dealership—not to mention the literally dozens of clothing boutiques and gifts shops catering to wealthy women. There is also a gourmet restaurant on every corner, or so it seems. Among the recommended restaurants are Blackstone’s Steakhouse (203-661-8700, blackstonessteakhousect.com), Terra (203-629-5222, zhospitalitygroup.com), Mediterraneo (203-629-4747, zhospitalitygroup.com), the Ginger Man (203-661-6400, gingermanct. com), Bistro Versailles (203-661-6634, versaillesgreenwich.com), Le Fat Poodle (203717-1515, lefatpoodle.com) and Le Penquin Bistro (203-717-1200, lepenquinbistro.com). Hotel rooms are harder to find. Adjacent to the concours site is the gorgeous waterfront Delamar Greenwich Harbor (203-6619800, delamar.com/Greenwich-harbor/), the flagship hotel of car collector Charles Mallory’s Delamar Group. The Delamar is the “host hotel,” which means many of the rooms are reserved for concours entrants. The minimum reservation is for two nights, and the cost is roughly $500 per night. If you can get in and you can afford the tab, this over-the-top hotel is definitely worth it. The Delamar has its own excellent gourmet restaurant, L’Escale (203-6614600, lescalerestaurant.com). The only other major hotel in town is the Hyatt Regency Old Greenwich (203-6371234, hyatt.com), which is a quick 4-mile drive up Route 1 from Roger Sherman Baldwin Park. The $149-per-night rate is a bargain in this upscale area. The Hyatt Regency is huge, and it boasts an indoor courtyard big enough for a landscape garden complete with full-sized trees, a pleasant indoor garden restaurant, and gigantic parking lots where you can safely leave trailers or car haulers while you’re at the show. There are also a couple of small hotels in Greenwich. Within easy walking distance from the concours is the Homestead Inn (203-869-7500, homesteadinn.com), a lovely 19th-century Italianate villa in the tony Belle Haven neighborhood near Greenwich Yacht Club. It has been beautifully restored into a high-end boutique hotel with a fourstar restaurant. Run by Thomas Henkelmann, the eponymous restaurant features creations by this THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY


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German chef who studied and worked in Michelin-starred French restaurants for decades before opening his own exquisite inn/restaurant in 1997 with his wife, Theresa. A little farther away from Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, yet still within walking distance of the concours and Greenwich Avenue, is a bed and breakfast called Stanton House Inn (203-869-2110, stantonhouseinn.com). Named by a former owner who was the granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and designed by famous architect Stanford White in 1899, this is a palatial home with 20 guest rooms. Very different from the Stanton House Inn is J House Greenwich (203-698-6980, jhousegreenwich.com), an ultramodern, architecturally significant boutique hotel 4 miles from the site of the concours. J House has its own upscale restaurant, Tony’s. Compared with Greenwich, which is one

HPDE Collector Auto (508) 229.8700 www.haydenwood.com info@haydenwood.com

The J House Greenwich Hotel

CMA MODELS, INC. Creators of historically accurate models of uncompromising quality for collectors around the globe, since 1989. Hand-crafted limited editions, custom builds, kits and rare one-of-a-kinds. The next best thing to owning the real car is owning one of our models.

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of the fanciest cities in the United States, Stamford is a bit downmarket. The distance, on I-95, from Greenwich to Stamford is 6 miles, which takes no time at all to cover when there’s no traffic. The Sheraton Stamford Downtown (203-358-8400, marriott.com) boasts a discount $99 rate for Greenwich Concours guests. There are another 45 hotels in Stamford, most of them run by national chains, including Courtyard by Marriott, Crowne Plaza, Hampton Inn, Hilton Stamford, Hotel Zero Degree, Marriott Stamford and Stamford Suites. Getting a hotel in Stamford is an economical alternative to staying in Greenwich, though keep in mind that I-95 can be clogged at rush hour, adding time to what is otherwise a brief commute to Greenwich. Wherever you stay, you really should put the Greenwich Concours on your calendar. Again this year, it’s going to be great. Better than great, even! For more information, please visit green wichconcours.com. THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

OVER 50 YEARS OF QUALITY FAMILY OWNED SALES AND SERVICE Specializing in sales and service of high quality pre-owned vehicles

We are located in central Connecticut’s Farmington Valley, and provide service to customers locally, nationally and internationally. We offer experienced service and sales as well as quality restoration services for Jaguar and other exotic motorcars.

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model review by Marshall Buck

1959 Le Mans–Winning Aston Martin DBR1

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ne of my all-time favorite marques is Aston Martin. I have been up close with a countless number of the automaker’s race cars and road cars, from Ulsters to a couple of Vulcans. Certainly, the crowning achievement for Aston Martin was winning the 1959 24 Heures du Mans (24 Hours of Le Mans), courtesy of Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori driving a DBR1. Surprisingly, considering the significance of this car and that victory, not many models or kits have been produced. There are several choices in 1:43 scale (toys, hand-built models and kits), but only one 1:24-scale kit and a 1:12-scale kit that needs many corrections. So now we come to the good-newsbad-news part. The good news: Spark Model produced a 1:18 scale-built edition of this LM winner. The bad news: it is rife with significant mistakes, some of which are just rank amateurish and careless. Another surprise is

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that Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. actually gave this model its blessing, approving and granting a license to produce this woefully inaccurate thing! Whoever gave the OK at AML must be visually impaired or lacking any knowledge of the DBR1 or any other car. The majority of mistakes are just not acceptable, especially when you

SPRING 2019

Wayne Carini of F40 Motorsport, and Chasing Classic Cars

2018 NSRA Best New Product Award The Signature Series product line goes above and beyond our other premium products by adding: • Available in ShowCase or CarCapsule Models Checkered Flag Basemat, Accented by white PVC exterior • Wider side viewing panels • Fused, wire ducts • Brilliant Customizable LED Package for Indoor ShowCase Products • IntelliCharge- Back Up Fan Power/Battery re-conditioner

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508-922-4700 tyt478@gmail.com

Single Enclosed Trailer Serving the New England Area

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MESH NEW ENGLAND

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consider the claims Spark makes in its marketing material about its extensive knowledge of the real cars, its huge research library, its access to much more information, and the great amount of effort it made in all the phases of preproduction to ensure accuracy. Really?! Before I present my list of grievances, I will say that on the plus side of this under-$200 model, it includes some nice touches and it looks good on the shelf—sort of like a VW-based kit car does when viewed from a distance at a car show: all good until you get close to it. The paint finish is great; too bad it’s a very wrong shade of green. The wheels are only generic; the spokes are set in deep instead of out by the edge of the rims, and each of the left- and right-side three-ear knockoff spinners is on the wrong side. The model makers must have been looking at the car upside down when they were installing the wheels. The shape of the body is close, but it has problems. For some unexplained reason, Spark has misshaped the tops of the rear fenders, adding a very unnatural and incorrect camel-hump rounded peak. The front-fender headlight area is off a bit, and the light covers are much too flat. The silver-painted exhaust pipe behind the large side vent is in the wrong location: The pipe should be at the front of the vent, not in the middle. And there is no sign that the missing windshield wiper was ever attached when Spark produced and shipped out my example of the model. The interior is reasonably well detailed, but Spark made the same mistake that almost all model companies make: It designed and painted the seats as if they were green leather. Wrong! The fabric on this and many other 1950s racing Astons was a blackand-white or cream-color houndstooth. Missing is any sort of support bar under the clear tonneau cover. The icing on the cake is the misspelling of Roy Salvadori’s last name, which is printed on the separate display base provided with each model. It’s spelled Salvadiru. Spark produced about 1,000 examples of this model in 2015, which is about 1,000 too many. But if you must have one, you’re in luck (sort of), because many can still be found on eBay. THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY


mesh

THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

new england

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May 5/5 17th Annual Car/Motorcycle Show 4 Project Graduation, Medomak Valley High School, Waldoboro, ME 207.542.0848

6/8 Behind-the-Scenes Auto Tour/ Show, Sandwich Heritage Museums & Gardens, Sandwich, MA heritage museumsandgardens.org, 508.888.3300

5/10–5/12 Land Speed Records, Old Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, ME loringtiming.com 207.227.1693

6/9 Concours d’Elegance, Saratoga Auto Museum, Saratoga, NY saratoga automuseum.org 518.587.1935

5/11 Cadillac Day, Saratoga Auto Museum, Saratoga, NY saratoga automuseum.org 518.587.1935

6/9–6/17 95th Annual Motorcycle Week, Laconia, NH laconiamcweek. com, 603.366.2000

5/11 Art of the Automobile IV: Spring 2019 Expo, Copley Square, 560 Boylston St., Boston, MA

6/15 Klingberg Vintage Motorcar Series, Early Cars & Classics, Klingberg Family Centers, New Britain, CT kling bergmotorcarseries.org 860.832.5526

5/12 Mother’s Day, United States— a friendly reminder 5/14 First Car Show of the Season, Bentley’s Saloon, Arundel, ME bentleyssaloon.com 207.985.8966 5/14 Ladies Driving Day, Palmer Motorsports Park, Palmer, MA palmer motorsprotspark.com 413.967.3560 5/18 Klingberg Vintage Motorcar Series, Klingberg Family Centers, New Britain, CT klingbergmotorcar series.org, 860.832.5526

5/26 Annual Spring Fling Corvette Show, Budweiser Brewery, Merrimack, NH gatecitycorvetteclub.com 603.437.3803 5/27 Downeast Street Rods Northeast Nostalgia Classic Drags, New England Dragway, Epping, NH nedragway.com 800.322.1263

PHOTOS BY RUSS ROCKNAK

6/6–6/8 British Motor Car Festival, Colt Street Park, Bristol, RI british motorcarfestival.com 508.395.6663

5/5 Kingpins Spring Show at the Beach, Salisbury, MA 978.852.1264

5/24-5/27 Trans Am Memorial Day Classic, Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, CT limerock.com 860.435.5000

5/31–6/2 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance, Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, 100 Arch Street, Greenwich, CT greenwichconcours.com 203.618.0460 SPRING 2019

6/2 Member Car Day, Larz Anderson Auto Museum, Brookline, MA mot.org 617.522.6547

6/8 2nd Annual Car Show: Barracudas, Sting Rays & More Show Cars from the Sea, Maritime Aquarium, Norwalk, CT maritimeaquarium.org 203.852.0700

5/19 Cadillac/LaSalle Club Day, Larz Anderson Auto Museum, Brookline, MA mot.org 617.522.6547

32 MESH NEW ENGLAND

June

6/16 Father’s Day, United States— a friendly reminder 6/16 Corvette Car Day, Larz Anderson Auto Museum, Brookline, MA mot.org 617.522.6547 6/21 Automobile Museum Gala, Saratoga Auto Museum, Saratoga, NY saratogaautomuseum.org 518.587.1935 6/23 Concorso Ferrari & Friends, LaSalle Road, West Hartford, CT connecticutchildrensfoundation.org 860.837.5725 6/26–6/29 Barrett-Jackson Auction, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT barrett-jackson.com, 480.421.6694

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6/30 Rusty Nuts Car Club, Bath Heritage Days, Bath, ME 207.389.4279

LIMITED EDITION – BESPOKE – ONE-OFFS

6/30 Amesbury Carriage Museum Auto Show, Amesbury, MA amesbury carriagemuseum.com 978.834.5058

The McLaren Senna and P1 are just two of the wide range of extreme modern cars and classics we offer in limited editions and built to order for owners in the precise specification of their car. Visit AmalgamCollection.com to discover the very large range of Ferraris, McLarens and many other significant modern and classic cars we have recreated in precise detail at 1:8 scale, along with a growing collection of the best 1:18 scale model cars in the world.

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EVENT HIGHLIGHTS As we look forward to the rest of the 2019 show schedule, let’s check the rearview mirror for highlights from this season and last season.

Town Fair Tire World of Wheels

3/22–3/24 Seaport World Trade Center Boston, Massachusetts After you have spent the winter in the shop, treating your classic muscle car to a few updates or wrapping up a full build, spring arrives, and you can finally slide open the garage door, roll out your car, and fire it up for the first time in months. Nothing says “Let’s burn some premium fuel” better than swinging by the Town Fair Tire World of Wheels in Boston. Celebrating its 45th year, the event took place at the Seaport World Trade Center, where more than 200 of the region’s hottest muscle cars, hot rods, customs, trucks, restos and motorcycles took over the exhibition hall. They illuminated it with a kaleidoscope of candies, pearls and metal flake that set the tone for the weekend. Packed with vehicles, the show floor provided an opportunity to check out the latest cars unveiled by local builders, including RMR Restorations of Hollis, New Hampshire. RMR won the Lug Nuts Car Club’s 2019 Boston World of Wheels Driven to Excellence award and finished second in its category for its build of a Plum Crazy 1970 Roadrunner. Several wicked rides made their Boston debuts and competed for the Pilgrim Award. While checking out the show, visitors had the chance to watch legendary custom-car builder Gene Winfield lower the lid on a cool hot rod from the Summit Racing Equipment Chop Shop. They also could check out a vast array of traditional hot rods and customs on display directly adjacent to Winfield’s post. Another signature of the event is the celebrity appearances that take place throughout the weekend. This year, fans had the chance to meet WWE superstar Seth Rollins, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Steve Darnell from the Discovery Channel’s Welder Up. —Russ Rocknak

PHOTOS BY RUSS ROCKNAK

34 MESH NEW ENGLAND

SPRING 2019

THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

WWW.MESHNEWENGLAND.COM

SPRING 2019

MESH NEW ENGLAND

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Northeast Classic

Vic Yerardi Memorial Car Show 9/28/18 ADESA Boston Framingham, Massachusetts

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PHOTOS BY JOSH SWEENEY/SFD

“My dad, Vic Yerardi, was passionate about cars and everything in the automotive industry. This car event is to honor that passion,” explained Ted Yerardi. Last year was the fourth-annual Northeast Classic: Vic Yerardi Memorial Car Show, a great event put together by Yerardi that welcomes automobiles from all genres. It’s a very family-friendly event, and 100 percent of the proceeds go to charity. Vic Yerardi loved German shepherds (his son does, too), so Ted chose the Massachusetts Vest-a-Dog charity as the show’s beneficiary. The nonprofit provides Kevlar vests to police dogs for Massachusetts police departments. You can join emergency responders, including firefighters, police officers and military personnel, at this year’s show, on September 28. There always seems to be a superhero or two on hand, as well, to help put an end to any capers that are happening while the car people congregate. Helicopters also seem to be drawn to the event, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple are hovering overhead again this year. I know superhero photographer Josh Sweeney likes to get elevated to really utilize his 70–200mm f2.8 Nikon zoom. The event is free to spectators, but out of respect for the police dogs that will be at the show, please leave your pets at home. —R.R.

THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY


New York International Auto Show 4/19–4/28 Javits Center, New York, New York

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PHOTOS BY LUKE ROCKNAK

The New York show has long been one of the marquee events on the autoshow calendar. It’s also the first major US show after the super fest that is the Geneva International Motor Show. For more than 115 years now, the New York International Auto Show has been among the largest car exhibitions in the United States, and a place for automakers to see and be seen. Brands that made a splash this year included Cadillac, Lincoln, Kia, Genesis, Ford, Audi, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Acura, Hyundai, Subaru, Toyota and Volkswagen. Curiously absent were Volvo, BMW and Ferrari; the Shanghai Auto Show opened earlier the same week, and most automakers with something new to show chose China over the United States. The Internet didn’t help either. The few examples of new metal that appeared in the Big Apple were shown online in the weeks leading up to the show. Shanghai may have stolen some of New York’s thunder, but Porsche was there with all of its mojo. The automaker had its 70th birthday last year, and to celebrate, it made a new Speedster. No Porsche is more American than the Speedster—the idea originated with the company’s US distributer many decades ago—so Porsche chose the United States as the place to debut the production model. If you know your Porsches, a Speedster needs no explanation; for the rest of us, it’s a sports car to drive on a sunny day. The windscreen has been cut lower than normal, as have the side windows. The manually operated soft top is pretty rudimentary and really meant to live under the streamlined rear deck lid. There is more to the new Speedster than that though. By chopping down the glass and replacing the roof with something that’s really only for emergencies, Porsche has made the Speedster a bit lighter than any other 911, and less mass means better performance. This Speedster was developed by Andreas Preuninger and his team at Porsche Motorsport. The engine is taken from the GT3 and GT3 RS, so it’s a 4-liter naturally aspirated flat-six that revs to 9,000 and delivers 502 hp while doing so. The Speedster is available only as a six-speed manual. Porsche says it will open the order book for the $274,500 car in May, and that it’s going to make only 1,948 examples. In the truck category, besides the red life-sized Lego version of a Chevrolet Silverado Z71, I really liked the Rivian R1T. It’s made by an electric-vehicle start-up that has been making all the right noises THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

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Cadillac’s 117-year history as a design and technology innovator is exemplified by the classic 1959 Biarritz convertible.”

The IMSA-championship Cadillac DPi-V.R race car is the centerpiece of a motorsports display that demonstrates how Cadillac’s winning racing heritage inspires the V-Series road vehicles and the brand’s commitment to engaging performance. Cadillac’s 117-year history as a design and technology innovator is exemplified by the classic 1959 Biarritz convertible, which offered features such as air-adjustable suspension and certain power accessories long before they were commonplace.

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New York International Auto Show, continued since emerging from stealth mode. The company has design and engineering teams in Michigan, a former Mitsubishi factory in Illinois, and Californian outposts where it’s working on batteries and autonomous driving. Trucks are far and away the best-selling vehicles in the United States, and every other company has been dragging its feet when it comes to electrifying them. The R1T is aimed at the upper end of the truck market: The lineup starts at $68,500 before the $7,500 federal tax credit, and in 2020, production will focus on the more expensive 135kWh and 180kWh models. The base 105kWh version will come six months later. The Saratoga Automobile Museum was also on hand, making its annual (five straight years) pilgrimage to Manhattan and displaying a wonderful collection of classic Italian hardware from an analog age. —R.R.

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Open House

3/23 Automotive Restorations Inc. Stratford, Connecticut Nearly 500 automotive enthusiasts braved the high winds buffeting traffic on I-95 to gather at Automotive Restorations Incorporated/Vintage Racing Services (automotiverestorations.com) in Stratford, Connecticut, in late March for the second annual open house and car meet. Parts of the state had been dusted with snow in the wee hours, but winter faded into the background as the crowd wandered past tables laden with doughnuts and bagels to the real treats: gleaming cars and trucks from every decade of motoring history. An engine roared on the dyno near the VRS race shop, where drivers made plans for the coming season while pretending they weren’t itching to turn tires on the track. There could be no better backdrop for coming out of hibernation with fellow gearheads than the ARI restoration projects that were on display. The cars included a 1929 AC Acedes that would be at home in a jewelry store with its sparkling beveled glass, glittering chrome, and ruby red body. Just a few feet away from a 1981 Ferrari 512 BB, ARI founder Kent Bain shared a microphone with promoter, collector and historic race car driver Murray Smith to offer a rare peek into automotive adventure. Winter may have tried to bully car lovers with blustery winds that kept temps to a forbidding 40 degrees, but they showed their mettle with a grace best described by Alice M. Swaim: “Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.” —Linda Zukuaskas

PHOTOS BY RUSS ROCKNAK

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Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance 3/8–3/10 The Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island, Florida

The 24th-annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance featured some new classes this year, including Cars of the Rock Stars. John Oates of Hall & Oates curated the presentation, pairing each car with a specific guitar. Oates selected cars from his personal collection and vehicles owned by or closely associated with other well-known musicians. He also sang a moving rendition of the National Anthem. The new and exciting classes didn’t stop there. A fleet of distinguished limousines occupied the lawn in a presentation titled Heads of State. The fleet comprised cars of kings and queens, presidents, popes and even a dictator. The Amelia joined forces with HistoricRacingNews.com to present the firstever live stream of the event. The live online video content allowed viewers from all over the world to watch the concours unfold in real time. Additional highlights included the Ferrari 250 GT SWB class, the Jaguar XK 120 class, a celebration of Indy Innovations, and the Custom Coachwork Volkswagen class to acknowledge the 70th anniversary of the VW Bug’s arrival in America. The Best in Show Concours d’Elegance Trophy went to a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Autobahn-Kurier owned by the Keller Collection at the Pyramids. A 1957 Ferrari 355 S owned by Cavallino Investments took home the Best in Show Concours de Sport Trophy. When the Autobahn-Kurier debuted at the 1934 Berlin Car Show, the Mercedes-Benz brochure informed the public that this car was designed for incredibly high speeds on the autobahn. It even went as far as to claim that the high winds at those speeds gave the car its defining shape. Mercedes-Benz built the new model on the PHOTOS BY JOSH SWEENEY/SFD

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The 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Autobahn-Kurier and 1957 Ferrari 335 S both truly embody the sophistication of our awards.” —Bill Warner, chairman and founder of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

The Best in Show Concours d’Elegance Trophy went to a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Autobahn-Kurier owned by the Keller Collection at the Pyramids (above). A 1957 Ferrari 355 S owned by Cavallino Investments took home the Best in Show Concours de Sport Trophy (left).

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Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance continued existing W29 chassis. Of the 761 examples sold, 342 were equipped with a 5-liter engine and 419 with a 5.4-liter engine. Both variants were equipped with a Kompressor. The remaining 70 chassis were sent to outside firms, which constructed customized versions of the car for their clients. The 335 S was the most technologically advanced Ferrari in 1957. It featured a longitudinal 60-degree V-12 with 24 plugs, two valves per cylinder, and twin overhead camshafts per cylinder bank, and it produced 360 horsepower. The Scuderia Ferrari factory team car started life as a 290 MM, was upgraded to a 315 S, and finally to a 335 S. The car has a tremendous racing history that spans three seasons. It participated in such major races as Sebring, Le Mans, the Mille Miglia, and 1,000-kilometer events at the Nürburgring and in Caracas. The car was piloted by some of the great drivers of its day, including Juan Manuel Fangio, Phil Hill, Olivier Gendebien, Alfonzo De Portago, W. Graf Berghe von Trips, Peter Collins, Maurice Trintignant, Mike Hawthorn, Luigi Musso, Stirling Moss and Gaston Andrey. This was in 1956 and 1957, when Ferrari won the World Sportscar Championship. “The 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Autobahn-Kurier and 1957 Ferrari 335 S both truly embody the sophistication of our awards,” said Bill Warner, chairman and founder of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. “I was thrilled to watch the judges honor such esteemed automobiles and continue to recognize the best and most extraordinary vehicles in existence, right here in northeast Florida.” The event once again brought together the best of the automotive world, including 2019 honoree Jacky Ickx, aka “Mr. Le Mans.” Ickx is a six-time Le Mans winner, the 1979 Can-Am Champion, a Formula 1 victor, and a Daytona, Sebring and Paris-Dakar winner. “I am proud to say that this year’s concours had some of the most innovative classes and interesting vehicles to date,” Warner said. “Our celebration of the automobile finds a way to evolve year after year, and we remain delighted to continue showcasing such rich automotive history through our event.” –R.R.


BACK ON TRACK

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We visit the Skip Barber Racing School to see what’s going on under the new management,

and we look back at how the school got where it is today.

words by Linda Zukauskas

How’d driving school go? Was it fun?” My family and friends, of course, were going to ask about my big adventure at the Skip Barber Racing School at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. I’d expected that, even looked forward to feeling like a big shot once I held that certificate in my hot little hands. What I didn’t expect was how the course would challenge me or that I’d feel damn glad for it. Senior instructor Bruce MacInnes says, “We teach a proven method for finding the limits of the car without a spin or crash.”

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I think he should add, “We also test the limits of our student drivers.” I don’t have a need for speed. I took the course to discover what it’s like to do what I’ve only seen from the sidelines or, on rare occasions, the passenger seat of a race car. I learned how to drive fast without taking chances, and I hope I do justice in describing my experience, though frankly, it’s like trying to tell someone about a magic show: I don’t know how they do it, but these instructors are adept at meeting students

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where they are. As a result, the teaching process is highly effective. What did I get as a student? One big takeaway is how the car will follow your eyes, so look well ahead. But haven’t I been doing that for 30 years as a street driver? Nope. I realized my eyes are usually on the bumper in front of me or, worse, I’m zoning out. Since graduating, I’ve never enjoyed driving more, because I pay more attention to what I’m doing and why. I also got a sense of what kind of driver I am. On

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the skid pad with chief instructor Terry Earwood, I was reluctant to obey his directive to “Give her a squirt,” which would put the car into a spin and allow me to practice getting out of trouble. He could have been sitting in a waiting room and not a careening vehicle as he summed up my overly cautious approach with a calm and insightful, “You’ll live longer, but you won’t be much fun to ride with.” Later, MacInnes walked us across the rain-drenched track in a shuffle to appreciate how the surface is polished

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Skip Barber in his racing days

by tires endlessly running over the same spots. In the van on the way back to our cars, he followed the wet line he’d taught to Paul Newman. I thought, “Nice story, but I’ve seen black ice with more traction, so forget me driving on that!” Nobody pushed me or made me feel like a chicken. Nor was I coddled. I can’t tell you how these guys do it, but they find each student’s comfort zone and work with it. I surprised myself when I got into the Number 8 Mustang and successfully drove that wet line. I wasn’t surprised when I found myself confused during another session and couldn’t for the life of me remember where

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following the session when I expressed my frustration. Bless him: He thought it was as laughable as I did but wasn’t going to let on until I spoke first. Everyone wearing a Skip Barber Racing School logo made me feel accepted. Any one of those instructors could out-drive me while yawning, yet they made me feel competent. As we relaxed over lunch, they told hair-raising stories—losing the entire braking system at speed or taking a calculated risk for the win in a championship race—yet when I shared how I’d coasted my Sentra into a parking lot from the point where I lost the clutch cable on a street, they listened. The level of respect for the students, the driving experience, and each other was as refreshing as it was motivating. I could see where a group would be transformed after one of the school’s teambuilding courses or how teens would learn that driver responsibly can be as cool as the freedom a car offers. I went from those moments of camaraderie to moments of fear. To add ABS to my skill set on the track, Earwood told me to take the car up to 80 mph on the straight and come to a complete stop where he was standing with a radar gun. I made it only to

Skip Barber racing his March Formula 1 car in the rain at the dutch Grand Prix in 1971.

Skip Barber Racing School graduates include race champions, entertainment-industry celebrities, and, in the case of Paul Newman (left), someone who was both. Although the cars have changed over the years—the school now uses Ford Mustangs—the curriculum and techniques have remained consistent and continue to produce skilled and thrilled drivers.

Not everything learned on the track translates to the road. On the track, you can use the full width of the pavement to make a turn. On a road, that’s “failure to maintain lane.” the line was, wet or dry. Mother Nature provided a variety of weather conditions during the three-day course. At the end of my lap, lead instructor Sebastien Sauriol’s voice came over the radio to coach me, and the next lap was better. I loved the luxury of a half-dozen professional drivers dotted around the course, watching and evaluating my performance in real time. When I took the first turn at Lime Rock Park, I concentrated on turning my foot to strike the gas and brake with that nifty new heel-toe downshifting maneuver I’d been taught in the classroom and practiced in a drill but hadn’t yet perfected. I kept my eyes ahead to smoothly steer the car. I also wondered, “What’s that noise?” My fingers had gone into autopilot and flipped the right turn signal. “Idiot!” I did it again for the next three laps. Lead instructor Mike Stillwagon was carefully reviewing my performance 54

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61 mph. “Do it again.” Two more tries, and then I got it right. Weeks later, a car popped out from a side lot and into my lane. I felt in control as I hit the brakes hard, thinking, “You’ve done this before. No biggie.” The other driver waved as he passed me, as blissfully unaware as I was grateful. Not everything learned on the track translates to the road. On the track, you can use the full width of the pavement to make a turn. On a road, that’s “failure to maintain lane.” However, what I learned about myself is with me every time I get behind the wheel. After I graduated, MacInnes emailed, “Glad you made us proud for sticking to your guns last week. Great personal determination on your part. Very cool!!!” No, I wouldn’t tell my friends that the Skip Barber Racing School is fun. Amazing, informative, uplifting, interesting, admirable, and, yes, a mind-blowing blast is where

I’d start before setting aside the thesaurus and suggesting, “You should sign up.”

From the Beginning Skip Barber started his school in 1975 with the idea that his new venture would complement his professional racing career. “I thought I would teach during the week and race on weekends,” he says. “But, I was the only guy who didn’t realize that I was done with racing.” THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

During his life transition, Barber learned two things: He thoroughly enjoyed being a businessman, and teaching people how to drive was highly rewarding. “At the time, every sport had coaches, even multiple coaches, except racing,” Barber says. “There were a couple of schools, but none were prominent, and it was rare to see a private coach. Today, all my good guys are making a living by coaching individuals.” With his background, Barber brought a WWW.MESHNEWENGLAND.COM

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ing with three other non-teaching companies that had an existing relationship with the Skip Barber Racing School. He sold a majority of his interest in the school to raise capital and bring in new expertise but found, “I made a terrible mistake. [The new owners] quickly made a mess of it and resold it to guys who really made a mess of it. In the end, they drove it into the ground. It was horrible to watch.” When the school filed for bankruptcy in 2017, the public confused that business with Barber’s ownership in Lime Rock Park. He grew tired of explaining that the 60-year-old race track was doing well and, in fact, adding major events. He was grateful when the local paper ran the headline, “School, Not Barber Broke.” His regrets now turn to hope as the school starts anew with an owner, DeMonte Motorsports, that’s committed to the achievements of the school and everyone associated with it. Robert Traina, national sales manager for Skip Barber Racing School, describes why DeMonte Motorsports acquired the school, in December 2017: “Half of this year’s Indy 500 field are Skip Barber Racing

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Courses include classroom instruction and time in the driver’s seat. The students receive plenty of feedback, which they can immediately implement on the track. They form bonds with the instructors and with other students as they take on and conquer each new challenge.

The next era of the Skip Barber Racing School is visibly obvious with all new equipment, including a switch from the Mazda Miata to Ford Mustang.”

Skip Barber today at Lime Rock Park, along with his friend, Sam Posey sitting in the openwheeled #34 race car.

MNE contributor Luke Rocknak after completing the 3-day racing program.

unique element to the new school. “Not everyone starts a business with a racer’s mentality, thinking that winning the race is all that counts,” he says. “I was going to succeed no matter what. That led to a really good school and a terrific place to work, because everyone we hired was involved in racing one way or another and had the same attitude.” That mix of competitiveness and trust became the foundation for what Barber 56

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very good experiences with the Mustangs. “They’re very forgiving and dependable and just fit students well,” he says. “Not everyone can get into an open-wheel car.” However, what isn’t broke won’t be fixed. “Lead instructors Bruce [MacInnes] and Terry [Earwood] wrote the original curriculum more than 30 years ago,” says Traina. “We’re testing it and making tweaks so the class is more interactive, but the core has not changed because of its proven success.” Whether students decide to spend more time at the track after graduation or leave their need for speed behind them, all feel they are better drivers for the experience. Traina notes, “Young drivers will learn more in one day than in six months of [traditional] driver’s education, and our testimonial page quotes a Connecticut state trooper who said his schooling saved his life when he reacted to avoid a collision during a pursuit.” In addition to the classes, Skip Barber Racing School offers interactive teambuilding programs that correlate the stresses of high-performance driving with the pressures of a high-performance job. “In the morning, they’re skeptical of what

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calls a self-perpetuating system emphasizing quality. “I didn’t hire any instructors after the third one,” he says. “The instructors did the hiring and, when someone wasn’t up to standard, the firing.” The school formed a solid reputation in the racing world. Barber says, “We used to dominate Indy, had every front runner in NASCAR, and five guys go to Formula 1.” After 25 years of success, Barber wanted to take the business to a new level by mergWWW.MESHNEWENGLAND.COM

School graduates, and that kind of result is unprecedented in the world. To get involved with this 40-year-old, iconic brand was a no brainer. “Also, we felt strongly that the school should survive if only for fact that, in its heyday, it employed more than 200 people. We’re not there yet in size, but we have hired back 40 percent of the team. I think that’s a huge positive.” The change in ownership is good news for students as well as teachers. Traina explains, “There’s not much of a secret to the school’s success. We teach the proper way to race a car. No matter if you’re driving open wheel or sedan, the basic principles are the same.” The next era of the Skip Barber Racing School is visibly obvious with all new equipment, including a switch from the Mazda Miata to Ford Mustang. Traina says the private school at DeMonte Motorsports had

the day will bring,” says Traina, “but by the afternoon, they’re congratulating each other and seeing really positive energy.” Whether taking the course to improve their driving skills or to develop collaborative skills, students inevitably benefit as future spectators, able to appreciate and enjoy racing action after their learning experience. Traina feels a deep passion for his work. “I’ve been involved in racing and driver education for almost 30 years, and there’s nothing like teaching a skill that someone can apply for the rest of their life,” he says. “And as a bonus, I’m helping them to acquire a skill that saves lives.” The man who started it all looks toward the future. Barber says, “I really applaud what these guys are doing. The school holds a special place in my heart, and I want it to succeed. They’re off to a really good start, and I’m happy to see my name being well represented.” SPRING 2019

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Charlie Vincent has kept a good number of his motorcycles, creating a very nice collection of purposebuilt, award-winning bikes, each of which displays a time-warp patina. The gold-medal-winning Ossa 250 2-stroke (left) that he brought to the Isle of Man in the early 1970s looks like it’s ready to do it again tomorrow, as does the heavily modified (by Triumph) 650 desert racer (right) that he raced in the Baja.

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BORN A SCRAMBLING MAN Back in the 1960s and ’70s, Charlie Vincent of Warren, Maine, competed in the grueling International Six-Day Trials on the Isle of Man and won two gold medals. words by Charlie Vincent as told to Russ Rocknak photos by Russ Rocknak

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ack in my younger days when I was living in Simsbury, Connecticut, I bought a Triumph T110 Thunderbird motorcycle, basically to ride it back and forth to work. I was on my way into Hartford one day when I hit a dog (he survived) and went down, getting road rash and most everything else that comes with sliding across the pavement. The injuries kept me out of work for two months, but I spent some of that time with a friend

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This unique motorcycle is the one Vincent brought to Czechoslovakia for another six-day trial. It was purpose-built by Yankee Motorcycles in Schenectady, New York. Its 2-stroke 500cc engine comprises two 250cc Ossa heads, barrels and pistons and Yankee’s own transmission and crankcase (left and below). Like the Ossa and Triumph, the Yankee looks like it is ready to go.

who was really interested in scrambles, and he got me interested. I decided that if I was going to ride a motorcycle, it was going to be one without a headlight. I stripped all the stuff off the Triumph that wasn’t needed and got it down to the regulation 310 pounds. That’s when my racing career started. I was 19 years old. I started out in scrambles, which originated in England and is now known as motocross. The difference is that motocross has really big jumps, and the bikes 60

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have a foot of suspension travel. We had small hills in scrambles and could carry a lot of speed, consistently. We would run laps, not the timing thing like they do in motocross. We would run five- to 10-lap races on courses that were a little shorter than motocross tracks. Some of the tracks they still use in California were originally scrambles tracks. They would call them TT scrambles, which is another English term. TT means “tourist trophy.” Those TT scrambles were a little smoother and

graded, and you could get some really nice slides in there. It was good stuff. I became a nine-time New England champion. We had a guy named Bob Hicks who started the motorcycle magazine Cycle Sport and was a really good promoter. He got match races going in the southern states on the East Coast. We would take a trip down to Maryland, and we would do a race based on the North versus the South. A few weeks later, the South would come up to our tracks, and THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

we would do the same series, and that grew into an East-versus-West thing. The New England Sports Committee and all the motorcycle dealers chipped in and raised the funds for us to go to California and race for a week, representing the East. It was the good ol’ days, when everybody chipped in 10 bucks and we would go racing. It was really neat. The first time we went to California, we got our asses kicked. Of course, it was their track, and it was a nice and smooth WWW.MESHNEWENGLAND.COM

TT scrambles track with big broad slides. It was a great track, with not many jumps. The next year, we brought the California riders to Grafton, Vermont, to race New England style. That track was the worst hellhole in the world. All the rocks on earth got sent to Grafton. The course also had a huge downhill run. We kicked their collective asses. Payback is a bitch. In the 1970s, when I got married to my wife, Gale, the whole East-West thing SPRING 2019

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This Ossa 250 motocross (left) doesn’t have much history to it; Vincent just wanted a motocross bike to run around on. All of his motorcycles are now drained of fluids and fogged for storage—time capsules representing their owner’s passion for riding motorcycles and representing the United States, both of which he indeed did very well.

Attention to detail in the shop has made all the difference at the show. Since the restoration, the Siata has won at the Greenbrier Concours d’Elegance, Sunday in the Park, Radnor Hunt Concours d’Elegance, Atlanta Concours d’ Elegance, and more. SHOW-READY SIATA PHOTOS BY RUSS ROCKNAK

was raging, so we took our honeymoon in Lynnwood, California, and we ended up living in California for a year, just racing the tracks. By this time, I had full racing sponsorship with Triumph, and we would run the best they could give us. Tri Cor was the East Coast distributor based in Maryland, and we would stop by their shop on our way to California, and they would completely rebuild my bike. Whatever it needed it got. By then, I was running a Bonneville. The West Coast distributor was Johnson Motors, so I got to know them well, too, when I was doing the back-and-forth thing. Eventually, I went on to win the national championship in Butler, Pennsylvania, and that was a big thing for me. Now, with motocross, they have about 13 races in the season. But in scrambles, our championship was decided by 62

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one race—either you had a really good day, or you waited until next year to do it all over again. Things were a lot simpler then, too. Anyone could run a race: just bring a bike and try to qualify. If you were any good, you would end up in a race. There weren’t all of the regulations and rules and licenses that are required to race today. Back in those days, we had to have jobs to keep the lights on. To give you an example, for our trip to Maryland for the North-South races, we would leave after work at about 4:30 p.m. on a Friday, and we all would take turns driving, including Gale. We would drive down there overnight from Connecticut, sleep a few hours in the van, and then go to the track early on Saturday to practice and qualify for the races on Sunday. It was a full schedule of races on Sunday, so they

didn’t end until it was almost dark. After the races, we would wheel our gear back into the van, and right down the street was a 25 cent car wash. We all brought a bar of soap, and we would wash all the clay from the track off of us with the car wash wand. We would then go up the road to a great little diner and eat. After dinner, we would drive all the way back to Connecticut and arrive back home at about 5 o’clock in the morning. I’d take a real shower, eat breakfast, and be at work at 8 a.m. at my post at Otis, as an elevator technician. I had two bikes back them, a practice bike and a race bike. When I wasn’t racing, I was practicing. I would spend three or four nights a week doing laps at Simsbury, working on the race bike at night and working my job. I was very lucky to have sponsorship for the motorcycles THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

and do it. John gave me an Ossa, and the beauty of it all is I love to ride a motorcycle. So to have someone give you the bike, do all the work on it, give you the motel and a little spending money, and feed you just to ride a motorcycle for two days straight was a hell of deal to me. This grew into a series. You had to go to a series of six races, all around the country, to qualify to represent the United States in the International Six-Day Trials. I remember doing a race in Oregon. Our day started out much the same as with the scrambles. Only this time, we went to the airport and got on a plane with our bags, flew to Oregon and arrived at the team truck by 7 a.m. to go over the bike and get briefed. In trials, you race against time, riding eight hours straight, running from checkpoint to checkpoint to checkpoint—over 200 miles a day. We did this for two days. That’s how you qualified. Then we would get on a plane and fly back home. Once I qualified, I was representing the United States on the team. Then I was sent to the Isle of Man to run the six-day trial on the island.

My first time running this TT, I got the gold medal, which means that I ran the whole six days without losing any time, changing my own tires because nobody else could touch the bike, and making sure I didn’t do anything stupid that would take me out. We also had to do special tests, like hill climbs, drags races and running on the road course with knobby tires. Everyone should try that last one. Just think about that: knobby tires on wet pavement. These special tests really meant a lot, because the guy who went the fastest got the most points, so it was best to just go flat out. You got the gold medal accruing points on the special tests as well as not losing or gaining any time on the clock at the end of the six-day trial. Vincent competed in the International SixDay Trials for eight years, including his last two as a team manager, and won two gold medals. When his racing career ended, he rode trails with his friends in Connecticut. After retiring from Otis, he sold his house and moved to his farm in Warren, Maine, “where,” he says, “life is the way it used to be up here.” Vincent doesn’t run his bikes anymore. They have all been drained of fluids and fogged. “I feel like I’ve made it this far and during all of that riding I never had any accidents, except for hitting the dog when I was 19 year sold,” he says. “Not bad for riding around all these years without a headlight.”

and the support, because at the end of the day, I did this just for a trophy. There wasn’t any money involved.

The Isle of Man The International Six-Day Trials was the name of the game at the Isle of Man when my scrambling career came to an end because 2-strokes were coming in and that eliminated the Triumph. John Taylor, who owned Yankee Motors in Schenectady, New York, was an Ossa distributor, and he put together a six-day team to go racing and hopefully qualify for the Isle of Man event. When it all started, the trials were in the Berkshires, where they had a two-day event every fall. John asked me if I would ride with his team, and it wasn’t a conflict with my day job or with Triumph. As a matter of fact, they both said go ahead WWW.MESHNEWENGLAND.COM

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OUR BENCH TEAM Renowned restorer Paul Russell knows the value of a college degree. That’s why he’s a fan of McPherson College in Kansas, the only school in the country where you can earn a bachelor’s degree in auto restoration technology and get right into the game. words and photos by Russ Rocknak

I

n the automotive industry as well as the aircraft industry, I frequently hear, a restoration-technologies graduate is becoming an in-demand commodity. Hands-on talent is becoming hard to find, and right now only two secondary schools offer this program. One is McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas. It offers a four-year BA program in auto restoration technology. The other is Pennsylvania College of Technology, which in conjunction

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with Penn State, offers a two-year associate’s degree program. In terms of sustenance and longevity, education is where our future lies. Taking care of our collections will not be possible without a bench team warming up. We start this twopart series by focusing on acclaimed restorer Paul Russell and McPherson College. I met with Russell to discuss his involvement with the school and how it affects his business and our hobby.

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Russell started in the restoration business in 1978, working for a restoration shop in Marblehead, Massachusetts, owned by Alex Dearborn. It was a small shop with Russell, Dearborn and two other mechanics. Russell had worked at the shop for five years, when Dearborn decided to go in a slightly

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PHOTO BY JOSH SWEENEY/SFD

This year’s Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance Best in Show trophy went to a1938 MercedesBenz 540K Autobahn-Kurier that Paul Russell and Company restored.

and completed car was challenging and took way too long to get done. I aspired to move to a facility where we could bring all of those outside facilities under one roof. “We moved to Essex in 1983,” Russell continued. “Initially, we just occupied what is now the mechanical shop. After five years

Paul Russell (above) finds that well-rounded individuals who are passionate about what they do are the best candidates for his bench team. Located in Essex, Massachusetts, Paul Russell and Company is rarely seen through a lens whose shutter actually opens and shuts. This is the environment that utilizes the best in automotive restoration technologies.

When I got involved with the school, I was intrigued because it was a liberal arts school and it offered an automotive restoration program—an endeavor that is primarily technical.” different direction, moving from restoring cars to selling them. He sold the restoration portion of his business to Russell, who was, in his words, audacious enough to think he was ready to run a business at the time. “[Dearborn] really did make the transition easy for me to start out,” explained Russell. “Part of our mutual agreement was that for five years I would maintain a relationship with him, being his tenant. He would buy a bigger building, and we could have a showroom and a restoration shop. The restoration shop only did mechanical work, so we would have to find outside sources like body shops, upholsterers and metal workers to do all the projects. After that five years, it became clear to me that most of my customers really wanted onestop shopping. The liability at that time of managing the other shops and trying to get the entire package together as a deliverable

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we built an addition where we could have a more environmentally compliant spray booth and ventilation system, a dedicated metal shop instead of just the corner of the body shop, and a centrally located parts room right in the middle. Gradually, as the business grew and the staff grew, we expanded again into the older part of this building. Now we have a full machine shop, showroom and a storage facility. We started out here with myself, Alex Finigan and Dave Twitchel. Now we have 26 employees. “I got involved with McPherson around 2003 or ’04, when I got a call from Brian Gunning, who was a member of the Mercedes-Benz Club and was on a committee involved with education and the club’s support of educational programs, particularly McPherson College. He recommended that I learn more about the school and come out to Kansas for a visit. Part of the

attraction was they had a restoration program, and the other was the educational component itself. I really believe in following your passion. At the school, you can learn because you are following your passion, not just picking from a list of majors, or saying, ‘Oh, I think I’ll be a dentist. They make good money.’ “When I got involved with the school, I was intrigued because it was a liberal arts school and it offered an automotive restoration program—an endeavor that is primarily technical. The mantra was, ‘We teach liberal arts that you can make a living with.’ That appealed to me. “At that time it was just a two-year program. There was a conversation going on about elevating the program to a four-year bachelor’s degree program. For a while they offered both, and then they dropped the two-year program. I was invited to become THE HUB OF NEW ENGLAND’S CAR COMMUNITY

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Phil Reinhardt

McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas, stands alone as the only school in the country that offers a four-year bachelor’s degree program in auto restoration technology. The program provides students with many advantages including internships with national museums and restoration shops, in-depth learning and dedicated instructors who will personalize your experience.

part of the advisory board. I was an advocate of making this a four-year program, because in my own business we not only need craftsmen and technicians, we need people who have a well-rounded view of the world and people who are good at dealing with my clients. Having somebody who had the experience of spending another two years in school and experiencing life and maturing a little more and becoming more well-rounded and worldlier—that held great appeal to me.” The job placement of McPherson’s restoration-program graduates is the envy of any school of any type in the country: It is about 95 percent. Students often have a job before they graduate. “These graduates are in high demand, and Phil Reinhardt is a good example of that,” said Russell. “Before I offered Phil a job, he came here as intern, a winter intern. 68

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A recent McPherson College graduate and a new Paul Russell and Company employee, Phil Reinhardt is ready to transition from school to work, aligning his vocation with his avocation. On the school’s campus in Kansas, I caught up with Reinhardt, a 22-yearold native of Tenants Harbor, Maine, and asked him about his trajectory to where he is now. He explained his path rather simply. “My dad has been in construction basically for his whole life. He had a shop where they would fix all the construction vehicles, and I gravitated toward the mechanics,” Reinhardt said. “Watching him and his colleagues work was very inspirational. It lit the initial fire. So, my childhood went from playing with Legos to lawnmowers and then to tractors. When I was 9 years old, my father knew a former director of the Owls Head Transportation Museum [in Owls Head, Maine]. My father would bring me there to visit, and I was blown away by the old cars and planes. The museum had a volunteer program, and they agreed to let me volunteer there, even though I was pretty young. That really lit the fire for old cars. I always thought they were kind of cool, but by hanging out with them and all the old volunteers who tinkered on them, I really learned an appreciation for that era of automobile history. “I got my first Model T when I was 14 years old—actually my first running car was a 1972 MGB. Time came to look for school or college, and I wasn’t too thrilled about going, but I found McPherson College online. My

parents weren’t really into it, though my dad was a little more into to it than my mother was. She thought I was crazy. My parents came out and visited the school and saw what a world-class program this was and how, upon completing it, you could have some opportunities to make a living in auto restoration. Then my mom started to come around.” Growing up on the mid-coast of Maine, it’s hard not to become involved in the maritime industry. (Reinhardt’s mother’s family are all fishermen, in the scallop or lobster business.) “When I was a freshman in high school, I picked up a job as a deckhand for the Monhegan Boat Line [which runs a pair of tour boats/ ferries between Port Clyde, Maine, and Monhegan Island],” said Reinhardt. “After two years, one of the older tour guides retired. I had public speaking skills from volunteering at the museum, so I worked both jobs, deckhand and tour guide. After six seasons of that, there was a need for captains, so my boss asked if I was interested in applying. He offered to pay the fees to take the course and earn the 100-ton merchant mariner credentials. I completed the course, and this will be my second season as a captain for Monhegan.” Paul Russell is the chairman of the advisory board for the automotive restoration program at McPherson College; the board also includes Tom Cotter, the Revs Institute Director Scott George, and Casey Maxem, who runs the Historical Vehicle Association. Russell and the members set the curriculum for the program based on what they want in a future employee. Russell visits the campus a few times a year. “When [Russell] was on campus, I would introduce myself and explain that I was a local boy from Maine,” said Reinhardt. “I kept in touch with him over the years, and in the fall of my junior year I did a winter internship with him at his shop in Essex, Massachusetts. He offered me a job soon after. I am really excited to start full-time there this September.” —R.R.

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It wasn’t a full internship; it was only about a month. I really liked what I saw and was impressed with him as a young man. This was in the middle of his junior year. I thought that I better make my interest in him well known, because when it comes time for him to graduate, he might not be around. So I offered him a job, and he accepted. He didn’t even have to start for a year. “Enrollment in this program is growing gradually and is not over-stressing the system, the school and the faculty. It is growing, and it has given me an interesting insight into the business side of higher education, like seats in classrooms and retention. You don’t think of it this way frequently, but it is a business. They need people to pay tuition and stay in school to make the whole thing work. You don’t just open the doors and say, ‘Here we are.’ You go out and recruit. You promote the program, because they want more applicants. “They have been very, very successful in recruiting for the restoration program. It’s becoming more and more known by not only shops, but private collectors who have significant 80- to 100-car collections and need a person on the payroll to take care of these cars, take them to events, and make

‘‘

“The business equation for the school now is that it has more applicants than it can accept. It has transitioned from hoping it would have enough applicants to now where it can be selective. The applicant has to have a portfolio and a certain grade point average to get in. The grade point average for the restoration program is about 3.2. “Being on the board, I go down there at least once a year for the board meeting in May, when the school is starting to wind up toward the end of year celebrations and there is a lot of excitement in the air. Board members attend the convocation,

Paul Russell and Company offers restoration, preservation, maintenance and sales and brokerage services on Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Porsche, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo and other fine European collectibles from the prewar era through the 1960s. Clients throughout the world recognize that Russell and his team are the very best at bringing very special automobiles back to their former glory.

The automotive restoration faculty even used to call themselves the Auto Rats. Now these Auto Rats are serving as an example to the rest of the school.”

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The 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Best of Show winner, the 1928 Mercedes-Benz 680S Saoutchik Torpedo Roadster is another Paul Russell and Company restoration. The restoration team was comprised of several McPherson College graduates.

and it is great to see students win awards for drama, band and track and field, just to name a few. Then there are all of these restoration-program students marching up to get their awards for doing other things in school life. “The year before last, the president of the student body was an automotive-restoration program student,” said Russell. “There was a time in the higher education environment—pre-Jay Leno and his call to action to get the younger generation involved—when I am sure some of the other faculty would look around and say, ‘What are all of these guys doing here?’ The automotive restoration faculty even used to call themselves the Auto Rats. Now these Auto Rats are serving as an example to the rest of the school. They have shown a way forward that all of the other departments are starting to pay attention to.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL RUSSELL AND COMPANY

sure they are all kept up so the owner can enjoy them. “The program has many aspects to it,” Russell pointed out. “If somebody wants to become an automotive journalist, the student can take the automotive-restoration course and major in communications. They can take automotive courses as well as the other curriculum to complete the requirements for an accredited bachelor’s degree. “You can take automotive history, too. It’s not all turning wrenches and spraying paint. There are a lot of avenues one can take at the school. There are also a lot more women getting involved now, and the school is placing those young women not only in positions that would traditionally be considered for women, like historical and archive work and public relations work, but also in the trades like body shops. I really applaud that.

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CLASSIFIEDS Classic Motor Sports Merrimack, NH classicmotorsports.us

1936 Oldsmobile F36 Sport Coupe 3-window coupe with rumble seat. Fully restored classic. Rebuilt original 6-cyl engine. Rebuilt 3-speed manual transmission. Maroon exterior paint and tan cloth interior. $31,500. Contact: Mark (518) 312.0636 1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan 4-door suicide style. A terrific antique from the ’50s! Still in original condition, except for a newer repaint of the same color. No rust, dust, moans or groans. 59,000 miles. $18,000. Contact: (978) 546.9309

1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440-6 Very Original well documented R/T 440 six pack, 2 broadcast sheets, represented as 34,400 original miles, receipts for restoration in 1996-1998, at 30,000 miles. Heavily optioned car. $73,900

1966 Land Rover Series 2A Santana FSeries II 2.2 4 cyl 4-speed transmission 4-wheel drive. Newer paint on aluminum original body. New factory interior and soft top. New tires. New carburetor and fuel pump. Contact: (215) 514.5812 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS Convertible L34 396/350 hp. Automatic transmission. 5,000 miles since meticulous, professional frame-off restoration. Black cherry/black interior and top. $85,500 Contact: Lew, Classic Motorcars at (617) 960.0780 1972 Bronco Original Uncut 302 V8 Factory 302 V8. Manual three on the tree. Solid Bronco to start with including original hard top. Needs front floors and rockers but the frame is very solid and the exterior sheet metal is decent. Contact: Matt at (617) 799.0075 1974 BMW 3.0CS Featured in Baikal Blue Metallic with a tan leather interior. 39K miles. A subtly modified example that received a mechanical refurbishment in 2001 at 38K miles. $55,500. Contact: Lew, Classic Motorcars at (617) 960.0780

1958 Chevrolet Apache Big back window Half Ton short bed fleetside. Good title. Motor locked up, and will need floors. Will deliver anywhere. $6,500 OBO. Contact: Iron City Garage at (412) 376.5538 2016 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT 2dr Coupe Only 10,059 miles. One adult owner. 4.7L V8. 6 speed manual. Traditional Aston racing colors: white with red stripe accents. Full factory warranty remains until July of 2020.

Porsche 1984 930 Turbo Coupe Only 27K documented miles. Gaurds Red with black leather sport seats. A/C. Electric sunroof. Black headliner. $125,000. Contact: Ray, Ayer European Auto Sales at (207) 582.7372 1959 Austin Healey 100-6 BN6 2.6L Race Car It has been meticulously maintained and updated. It is fast and the IMSA exhaust leaves a lasting impression. $55,000. Contact: Jason at (617) 331.5999 1999 Shelby Series 1 One owner from new. All documents from purchase. Always garaged. Only 2,900 miles. Just as new. Even includes signed, numbered Carroll Shelby framed print that came with the car.

1988 Porsche 924S 80K original miles. 5-speed manual transmission. Sunroof. Power windows. A true classic sports car. 1988 was the last year they made them. $9,999. Contact: Lao at (781) 361.3508

Boats

1964 Chevrolet Corvette A very nice-running, non-matching-#s car. P/S P/B. Everything seem to work except clock. Nice frame. Period-correct 327. Paint is fresh and looks great from 5 feet. All chrome is excellent including hubcaps.

Contact Andrew at (603) 429.8840 74

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1967 Porsche 912 Rare red/tan interior combination. 5-spd., 5-gauge car. Completely restored 10 years ago with under 1,500 miles since. Arizona rust-free car. Thinning out my collection. Contact: Mike (978) 502.4064

1918 V8 Wright Aeronautical Model H3 Hispano-Suiza aircraft engine, displacing 18.5L 1127 cubic inches, New Old Stock. $60,000. Contact: Mark Mason, New England Boat & Motor, Inc. at (603) 528.3411

Classified Ads Standard classified ads are $39 per listing. Premium classified ads that contain a color photo are $90 per listing, and both may contain as many as 35 words total. Please contact Russ Rocknak at 603.759.4676 or rsr@meshnewengland.com for more information.


LAST WORD NUMBER ONE Jimmy Page’s Gibson Les Paul Standard, ca. 1959–60 Play It Loud exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 4/08–10/1

PHOTO BY RUSS RCOKNAK

The RPM Foundation is a grant-giving organization that accelerates the growth of the next generation of automotive Restoration and Preservation craftsmen through formal training and Mentorship. Preserve the past. Build the future. Donate today. 76

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