Motoring mascots at the Concours d’Elegance of Texas

MONTGOMERY, Texas — Like miniature sculptures, mascots sit atop the radiators and hoods of classic cars as if they were posing in an art gallery. While some are easily recognizable, I found several new ones at the Concours d’Elegance of Texas, held May 5 at La Torretta Lake Resort in this northern Houston suburb.

This is the second year for the event at the recently renovated resort on the shores of Lake Conroe, and about 100 cars were displayed on one of the resort fairways.

According to Motoring Mascots of the World by William C. Williams, the first mascot was a St. Christopher statuette placed on the dash of an 1896 Daimler by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. After that, the mascot idea caught fire. Examples could be purchased in jewelry shops and accessory stores.

One of the most interesting mascots was found on a 1928 Moon Diana two-door sedan. The Moon Motor Company was based in St. Louis. The Diana was produced by a wholly owned subsidiary, Diana Motors Company, between 1925 and 1928. The engine was a 72-horsepower, eight-cylinder Continental. Hydraulic brakes were standard. The beautiful radiator shell has a cameo-like badge, and this car was topped with woman mascot.

Designers began creating all kinds of figures for radiators. Some mascots were brand-specific, such as the Pierce-Arrow kneeling archer or the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy, but others were used found on a variety of makes. The Goddess of Speed, a forward leaning lady holding a wheel, is one of the most recognizable and often used mascots. Rene Lalique, a French jeweler and designer, created large mascots in crystal.

One of the most popular radiator adornments is the Boyce Motometer that contained a thermometer that the driver could read from inside the vehicle. Knowing the temperature of the water was crucial.

A 1932 Plymouth Sports Roadster had a flying lady wings leaning into the wind, and a stunning 1932 Buick Series 67 sedan sported a Mercury figure perched on the edge of its radiator cap. According to the car’s owner, Charles Nixon of Fort Worth, the Mercury was an option on the Buick.

Over the years, Cadillac’s flying lady has gone through several permutations, each one more streamlined and less distinct. The earlier versions, like the one on a 1941 Series 62 coupe, show a winged lady smiling into the wind, a fairly common theme.

Le Mans-winning Ferrari to be featured at Art of the Car Concours

Forty-eight years ago on June 23, at precisely 4 p.m., Masten Gregory of Kansas City breathed a sigh of relief as his red No. 21 Ferrari 250 Le Mans Berlinetta crossed the finish line to win the most important sports car race in the world: The 24 Hours of Le Mans. He and his co-driver, Austrian Jochen Rindt, outlasted faster cars and covered 347 laps of the 8.365-mile circuit, averaging 120.944 miles an hour for 24 hours.

Gregory was the second American to win this prestigious event. Phil Hill, from California, won in 1958, 1961 and 1962. Gregory, who died at age 53 in 1985, will be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America on Aug. 21 at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit. He is buried in Porto Ecole, Italy.

Fast driving was in Gregory’s blood as he grew up taking part in impromptu racing on the streets of Kansas City. Folks have said they could hear his ’49 Ford screeching through Mission Hills in the middle of the night.

Masten was born to Riddelle and Nancy Gregory on Feb. 29, 1932, the youngest of three children. Riddelle Jr. and Nancy Lee were his siblings. The Gregorys invented a flourishing mail-order life insurance business, Postal Life and Casualty, but Masten’s father died at age 38. Masten, according to Patrick Sinibaldi’s book, “Masten Gregory, The Maverick,” was “was a typical rebel” who went to Pembroke Country Day School and later, Shawnee Mission High School, but never graduated.

Street racing led him to sports cars, and his first race, in 1952, was at Caddo Mills, Texas, in a Cadillac-powered Allard J2X. In 1953, he bought a Ferrari 375 MM and went to Italy. Masten found seats in sports cars and formula cars of most every kind. Racing took him to Europe, the States, Mexico, Cuba and South America. In Kansas City author Michael J. Cox’s book, “Masten Gregory: Totally Fearless,” he quotes the legendary Carroll Shelby as saying that Gregory was “the fastest American to ever go over and race a Grand Prix car.”

In many ways, the 1965 Le Mans win was the pinnacle of his career, although it came at time when his racing days were in decline. The 3.3-liter, V-12 Ferrari 250 LM, overshadowed by the Ford GT40s and Ferrari prototypes, started 11th and was an unlikely candidate for an overall victory. As the race progressed, the faster Fords and Ferrari prototypes dropped out. Electrical trouble hit Gregory and Rindt about 10:30 p.m. and the car was in the pits for 20 minutes, according to Sinibaldi’s book. The duo restarted the race in 18th place, determined to drive flat out through the night. They routinely revved the engine past its limit to 9,000 rpm. By dawn they were two laps behind the leader, a Belgian Ferrari 275 LM driven by Pierre Dumay and Gustave Gosselin and by mid-morning, only seconds behind. Shortly after noon the Belgian car blew a tire on the Mulsanne straight and it took two pit stops to repair the damage. Gregory and Rindt built a five-lap lead and cruised to victory at 4 p.m. That was the last time a Ferrari won overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Red No. 21, unrestored and now owned by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is just like it was when it finished the race in France. The windshield is peppered with rock chips and the seats are worn This prancing stallion will be on display from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 23 at the seventh annual Art of the Car Concours on the grounds of the Kansas City Art Institute, 4415 Warwick. The Concours, for 200 cars and motorcycles, is a benefit for the institute’s scholarship fund.

Special guests for this year’s event include Sir Stirling Moss and automotive journalist Denise McCluggage. Moss was one of the top Grand Prix drivers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. McCluggage, who grew up in Kansas and raced sports cars in the States and in Europe, was a pioneer female racer as well as a founder of Competition Press that became Autoweek. From 1:30 to 3 p.m. on June 22, she and Moss will join Riddelle Gregory, Masten’s brother, in a Meet the Legends panel discussion to discuss Masten Gregory and sports car racing in the 1960s. Tickets and information are available at www.artofthecarconcours.com or call

A great way to shake the winter blahs

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Car enthusiasts know it’s spring in Florida when Amelia is blooming with chrome and the quivering palms echo with the warble of high-horsepower exhausts. There’s no better tonic for shaking off winter’s rust than spending a few days luxuriating in bright sun, green grass, palm trees and exotic classic cars at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

The concours, founded by Bill Warner, has become one of the top classic-car events in the world, and for one day about 300 historically significant vehicles from all over the world pose on the Ritz-Carlton golf course like four-wheeled fashion models. About $2 million has been donated to local charities in 18 years.

This year was a special celebration of Harry Miller racecars and the 50th Anniversary of the Porsche 911 and Ford GT40. This was also the 50^th year of Lamborghini, and several were on hand.

Amelia Island is just northeast of Jacksonville and is one of a chain of barrier Sea Islands that was named after Princess Amelia, daughter of George II of Great Britain. For the last 18 years it has been home to the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in March.

What’s so fetching about Amelia Island is the relaxed atmosphere and the eye candy. Beautiful cars, beautiful people and lovely scenery are everywhere you look. Want to take a test drive in the newest Porsche or Jaguar? Step outside the Ritz and there they are, waiting for test drives. Other manufacturers, such as Mercedes-Benz and McLaren, were on hand, as well.

Stroll through the hotel and you’re just as likely to pass a famous race driver as you are a family on vacation. You’ll bump elbows with legendary automotive personalities and even the occasion movie star, but what you’ll notice most are dozens and dozens of breathtaking automobiles outside the hotel. Auction houses Gooding and Company and RM conduct daylong collector-car auctions on days preceding the Sunday concours, and through their hands pass millions upon millions of dollars of exotic sheet metal. Gooding sold $28.1 million dollars worth of cars on Friday and RM sold just more than $26 million.

Throughout the event you will find books, literature, the Automotive Fine Arts Society gallery, clothing and automobile signs, brochures and posters.

The highlight of the weekend, however, is to be on the wet grass before dawn on Sunday as cars begin their entry onto the show field. They shimmer in the morning light as they roll down the cart path and onto the grass. The raspy exhaust of an old racecar bounces off the surrounding trees while big Duesenbergs and Rolls-Royces glide by in near silence. Some cars placed the night before take on an unearthly look when covered with dew or clear plastic sheeting.

Once every car and motorcycle is in place, more than 20,000 spectators stream in and the fairway is elbow-to-elbow for several hours. There are blazers and straw hats, sundresses and high heels but most visitors are dressed casually. Sometimes the collective energy of the crowd felt almost like a carnival, but that would be a very rich carnival since many vehicles were worth millions of dollars.

POMONA, Calif. — Ten buildings at the Pomona Fairplex house what has become the granddaddy of the hot-rod, custom-car shows: The Grand National Roadster Show, now in its 64^th year. Held on Jan. 25-27 this year, GNRS has become a ritual gathering of the faithful. Once known as the Oakland Roadster Show, it is the longest running indoor car show in the world, and this is the 10th consecutive year it has been in Pomona.

More than 500 vehicles compete for awards. The show culminates with the anointing of America’s Most Beautiful Roadster, a title that might as well be the Oscar of hot rodding.

Judging from the prominence of gray hair (and a few motorized scooter chairs) at this year’s event, hot rods and custom cars seem to appeal to a mostly older crowd. That’s pretty natural since the majority of these cars date back to the 1950s and 1960s, but it makes me wonder about the long-term viability of the hobby because I don’t see a lot of young people building hot rods or custom cars.

The roots of hot rodding reach back to the time just after World War II when young, mostly male enthusiasts, many just home from the war, modified their cars to make them faster or unique. They raced at drag strips, the dry lakes in California or the Bonneville Salt Flats. Speed, any way you could get it, was the goal.

For those who valued style over performance, customizers chopped the tops of ’50 Mercurys, Fords and Chevys. Hood ornaments removed, door handles were “shaved” and various grilles and taillights were grafted on. Wild paint jobs, often with flames or scallops, were the order of the day.

Metalworking geniuses, such as George and Sam Barris, used lead to smooth their work. In many ways, they were the American equivalent of European coachbuilders except they modified existing cars rather than building bodies from scratch. Today, the torch is carried by builders such as Roy Brizio, Steve Moal, Troy Trepanier and Dave Simard, to name but a few.

The roadster show is a throwback to those glorious days. The “suede palace” building houses traditional customs and hot rods, many painted in flat black primer. Originally, cars were left in primer because their owners couldn’t afford paint, but now, primer has become a fashion statement.

This year’s America’s Most Beautiful Roadster was a 1927 Ford track roadster owned by John Mumford of Portola Valley, Calif. Mumford’s car, built by Brizio, captured the essence of hot rodding’s early days. All of the parts are original and period–correct. The Ford V-8 60 engine has a very rare set of Ardun heads (only eight were made). Kirkman disc brakes and a Halibrand quick-change rear differential are icing on the cake.

Brizio’s workmanship is the picture of perfection, and the old-school look of Mumford’s car fits perfectly with the spirit of the event.

On a warm Saturday morning in mid November, John L. Baeke and Rick Hulett squirted some starting fluid into the downdraft carburetor atop a centrifugal supercharger and cranked an antique eight-cylinder racing engine to life.

With spits and sputters, this polished creation of W. W. “Cockeyed” Brown stumbled awake after decades of slumber. Billows of oil smoke spewed from the exhaust pipe and the racket was enough to rouse the ghosts of the 1922 Kansas City Speedway board track.

William Wayne Brown, who lived from 1886 to 1958, was a Kansas City automotive designer/machinist whose shop was at 127 Southwest Boulevard in a building that is now occupied by Missouri Bank. Baeke does not know the source of Brown’s nickname, Cockeyed, but he said it was a term of endearment that symbolized his many adventures.

Baeke, a retired physician from Overland Park, loves racers from the late 1920s and early 1930s. He discovered this engine in the Wisconsin garage of a fellow car collector several years ago. “It caught my eye because it was a straight-eight,” he said, “and then I said, ‘Oh my gosh, it has a supercharger hanging on it.’ Then I got closer and saw that it had Kansas City embossed on it in four places.” He was able to buy it after his friend developed cancer.

Baeke said Brown drafted, machined and built everything himself, from the block to the finned aluminum oil pan, cams, solid crank, tubular rods, pistons, valves, water pump and supercharger.

After being cleaned up, the engine was placed on a stand, complete with radiator and gas tank, so that it could be started. The polished aluminum sparkles like jewelry.

Hulett, of Merriam, helped Baeke decode the engine’s firing order and prepared it to run.

Brown was a friend with famous engine designers Harry Miller and Fred and Augie Duesenberg. He was well known in local racing circles. He won the inaugural High Banks race at Belleville, Kan., and was a fixture in midget racing at Kansas City’s now defunct Olympic Stadium. He competed in the Santa Monica, Calif., road races, the Pike’s Peak Hill Climb and raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1919. He was on the starting line in September of 1922 for the first event held at the Kansas City Speedway.

The Kansas City Speedway, situated roughly at 95^th and Troost, was a 1.25-mile oval track made out of 1 million board feet of 2x4s set on end and bolted together to create a 45-degree banking in the turns. It could seat 50,000 spectators. Tommy Milton won the 300-mile race at an average speed of 107 miles per hour. The track deteriorated quickly and lasted less than two years.

In addition to the winner Milton and “Cockeyed” Brown, the starting lineup for that first race included several nationally known drivers, such as Pete DePaolo, who also drove one of Brown’s cars, along with Leon Duray and “Smilin’ Ralph” Mulford.  Roscoe Sarles was killed in an accident.

Baeke thinks his engine was built around 1925, and it was bolted into a racecar of Brown’s design. The two were separated around 1947. Baeke recently found the racecar in California and hopes someday to reunite it with the engine.

Baeke said it has been difficult researching Brown, his cars and his engine. If anyone has knowledge of W.W. Brown, contact Baeke at JBaeke@ParkPlaceUSA.net.

HUNGTINGTON BEACH, Ca. — Every Saturday morning for the last 27 years, at a tiny donut shop in a strip mall on the corner of Magnolia and Adams streets, hot rodders have met to grab a donut, drink coffee and show off their cars. What began with four friends has blossomed into as many as 75 cars on display on any Saturday.

Luminaries of the hot-rod hobby — people such as Chip Foose, Art Chrisman and Little John Butera — have dropped in over the years.

I showed up with a high-school friend and his brother on a drizzly morning on Jan. 26, and much to our dismay the parking lot was almost empty. Street rods and rain don’t play well together.

A dozen or so guys, mostly with gray hair, gathered under the shop’s overhang, warming their hands with paper cups of coffee. The rumble of a V-8 exhaust caught everyone’s attention and in drove Larry Urey with his homemade track roadster.  Like bees to honey, folks quickly gathered around Urey’s car. Despite being a little wet he was enjoying the moment. His rapid-fire conversation was constantly punctuated by an infectious laugh. Here was a guy who was in love with life and his car. His philosophy: “Live life while you still have your health.”

“I’m 70 years old,” he quipped as he stepped out of the car, “and this is an amazing car. It always puts a smile on my face. I’ve never had so much fun in my life.” Strangers constantly stop him and ask for rides, he said. With that, he offered a DVD about the car. He has given out hundreds.

Urey, from nearby Costa Mesa, has built three of these track roadsters from scratch. He sketched the frame for his first one on the floor of his garage. “I built the body and frame for $1,000,” he said, beaming.  The rounded tail section is made from welding together two rear fenders from a 1950 Chevy pickup.

Urey’s car is stylistically similar to Indy racers from the early 1930s, including the red and white paint job with the Ford V-8 symbol down the side. It weighs about 2,300 pounds. The grille shell looks like it was made from a ’32 Ford. The engine is a 302-cubic-inch Ford with 300 horsepower and the transmission is a five-speed.

“I built hot rods all my life,” Urey said, “but nothing attracts attention like this car.” He has driven it all over the country, from California’s El Mirage dry lake to Pennsylvania. He once drove 974 miles to Oregon in 18 hours. He’s even had a couple of minor crashes.

“This car seems to attract females,” he said with a mischievous grin. “You got to have scruples to drive this car.”

“This car gets you the most immediate friends you’ve ever had in your life,” he said. “I’m blessed.”

Paul Geivett builds amazing scale model cars from scratch

Paul Geivett got a D in shop class at William Chrisman High School because, instead of the project his teacher assigned, he built a gas-powered model of the Boyle Special Maserati that won the Indianapolis 500 in 1939.

The model is amazing in its detail, but Geivett still was marked down. He smiles broadly as he tells that story, and 71 years later that model sits on a shelf in his spare bedroom.

Geivett, of Mission, Kan., will be 88 three days after Christmas. He has always worked with his hands, first as an apprentice in a machine shop while in high school, and later at Lake City Army Ammunition Plant after a stint in the Navy. Most of his career was spent at Union Machine & Tool Works.

Geivett didn’t just build cars, he raced them, too. He drove a midget at Kansas City’s now closed Olympic Stadium and several other regional tracks when he was a young man. Model making, however, has always been his first love.

Not content with his high school model of the Boyle Special, Geivett built another that has even more detail. The fiberglass body is made from a wooden mold, and it is powered by a model airplane engine that sits under the hood. The interior has tiny gauges with realistic numerals.

The front axle has torsion bars and the rear axle has elliptical leaf springs attached to the steel frame. He made the wire wheels by hand. This model is so realistic you can almost hear the echoes of the Indy crowd.

At one time, Geivett owned a 1932 Nash, and he worked on its restoration for five years before selling to someone from France. Geivett also spent five years building a one-fifth-scale model of the Nash from scratch. His Nash model is amazing in its detail. The doors have roll-up windows, the hood opens to reveal a perfectly detailed engine and the radiator shell was hand formed out of brass before it was chrome plated. The tires originally were ashtrays, and he made the wheels himself.

The Nash model is nearly three feet long and weighs about 50 pounds. For years, whenever there was a severe storm warning, Geivett and his wife would carry the model to the basement for safekeeping, but they aren’t able to do that any longer.

It’s obvious that model making is still in Geivett’s blood. His spare bedroom is lined with model cars, and a model airplane with a seven-foot wingspan hangs from the ceiling of his garage. He also built two one-fourth-scale NASCAR racers. Even though Geivett has spent much of his life creating miniature versions of real vehicles, his accomplishments are large in stature.