Vintage Era Days

Today, the Bay State Antique Automobile Club hosted their annual Vintage Era Days car show at the Endicott Estate in Dedham, Massachusetts. Different from their annual general car show, Vintage Era Days focuses on the golden age of the automobile, from the beginning until World War II; vehicles newer than 1942 are not even permitted onto the show field, and the show is not judged in any way so as not to take away from the enjoyment of the automobiles and the day. The show represents a time in which more thought and attention to style and detail was given to something as small as a radiator cap mascot, such as the one pictured above on an all-original 1928 Pierce-Arrow, than is given to an entire vehicle today; a time in which cars and trucks were every bit as much works of art as they were the machines they were intended to be. Simply put, Vintage Era Days is motoring at its best. Here's a small sample of what was there:

This stunning all-original 1932 Studebaker President coupe-roadster is owned by my friend Robert, and has traveled only 38,000 miles and change since new; the last few thousand of which have been under his command. It recently performed flawlessly on a 400-mile round trip to Stowe, Vermont for a similar show, and also to Newport, Rhode Island and back, where it took second place in Preservation Class at the Concours d'Elegance in May of this year.

Some 45 years ago, with only 21,000 miles on it, the engine seized in this 1937 Graham Cavalier and its owner pushed it into the barn behind his house. Last fall, a gentleman was finally able to purchase it, awoke it from its slumber, and brought it to my father's shop for sandblasting and paint. The exterior brightwork and interior, however, were simply cleaned and reinstalled. Here she is, all put back together and out on the road where it belongs.

This handsome 1929 Packard roadster looks great in two-tone green.

A very stately looking all-original 1937 Packard Twelve model 1508 formal limousine and an all-original 1921 Buick open touring sedan hold down the back corner of the field.

Somebody told me there was a Ford Model A pickup truck in this picture, but I can't seem to find it. The supercharged 1937 Cord 812 I was able to locate, however, looks like it's going a hundred miles an hour standing still.

This all-original 1911 Knox open touring sedan was easily my favorite of all the vehicles at the show. Owned by a gentleman that lives only two towns away from me, it was not the first time I'd seen this grand old touring car at a show, but certainly the first time I was ever able to get this close to it; the car finally free from the seemingly endless crowd of booger-picking morons asking stupid questions commonly found at the local ice cream stand, a locale where an automobile of this caliber is extremely underappreciated. Don't get me wrong, here; I'm not badmouthing Joe Blow and his buttered together cloned SS split bumper '70 Camaro he's owned since high school, because I'm still very much like him. I'm no sophisticate, but rather still just an idiot kid that can't keep away from old beaters, throwing good money after bad, powerless against the appeal of a once-proud junker from a bygone era, but I definitely aspire to progress at some point; if i'm lucky, all the way to an automobile of this grandeur and patina. I have nothing but the utmost respect for cars like this and the people that own and drive them, and this is why I find it very refreshing to be able to occasionally get up close to them in a setting where some fat hick in a dirty baseball cap and an ill-fitting NASCAR t-shirt and sweatpants isn't going to peer through the louvers stamped in its delicate butterfly hood and shout, "That thing got a Hemi?!"

External valvetrain! Talk about user-friendly! A broken pushrod can be replaced in a matter of minutes with even the most modest set of tools! Refill the grease cups atop the rocker arms and you're in the wind! At a blazing top speed of 30 miles per hour! But with such an amazing machine as this, speed doesn't matter; it's meant to be seen. And that's exactly what she does; still turning heads after nearly a century.