Recognizing original cars

The current judging system for original cars is silly. Most people who have original cars don't want them judged. I think the CCCA missed the boat on original cars and the attempt to do something now is too little too late. To me, the AACA HPOF badge is what I'll try to get for my original cars & that's it. I wonder if it really matters. What will probably happen when I die is that the only people who will be able to afford my cars is someone rich, and then they'll just do a complete body off restoration on it anyway & throw any original car awards in the trash. Look at the white 1934 Packard Dietrich conv. sedan that was at Warren in 1999. You saw what happened to that car. I would have left it an original driver. Yes it needed a paint job, but you could have left the rest of it alone. The car ran perfect & was driven from NJ to the meet in Warren, OH. I saw the owner at that time doing the "balance a nickel on the engine block while it's running" trick. Now the guy who has it easily spent over 200K restoring it and it will never be driven again. Sadly, this is what will happen to most original cars in the next 50 years. I venture to say most original cars today are owned by people who have had them 30 plus years, and, in many cases, probably couldn't afford to fully restore them even if they wanted to. I've been in the CCCA many years, I've heard the snide comments by people who just don't understand original cars. That's why I generally just leave my cars at home & just show up at CCCA meets to look at the cars & then go home.

You will probably be happy to hear that the proposed formalized Judging Program for Original Cars has been shelved as being unwieldly and imprecise. The CCCA will continue to recognize Original cars at National Meets with the unique method of awarding ribbons on the show field for Original Cars and Cars with Original Features. You are probably right in supposing that the CCCA is far too late in recognizing original cars. Many years of trying to come up with an accurate and equitable way to recognize them has brought the conclusion that it's not as easy as one might think. Dave, you were closely involved with this process when you were on the Board and surely saw both the desire to put together a workable program and the difficulty in doing so. Part of the problem is the mere passage of time. Some great cars that were restored in the fifties, when they were a mere 25 years old, are now presented as original some fifty years after that first restoration. The owners of these cars are sometimes unsure of the degree of originality of the cars, so there is no guarantee that a team of Judges would know any better. With the amount of effort that was put into the Original Car Judging Program by Harry Clark and others it is disappointing that it did not work better.

The good news is that there is more and more appreciation for the preservation of original cars within the CCCA. At this past Annual Meeting in Boston there were 6 cars entered in the Original Car category that earned Original Car or Original Features ribbons. The Original Car Award winner was a wonderful Rolls-Royce Henley Roadster belonging to Sandra Bahre of Alton NH. She happens to be the second owner of the car; the first, another lady in New Hampshire, was presented the car as a graduation gift. It has been wonderfully preserved and draws at least as much attention (or more) as any of the beautifully restored Classics at the event.

The CCCA will continue to recognize Original Cars and leave the judging of them to someone else.

Jon Lee

The CCCA has many smart members who are willing to work and make something happen that is important in preserving the history of great and unusal cars, and I am sure that once we get a group that is interested in original cars, the club will give judging more than a one time chance. When I was there I saw a lack of desire and since, only a half hearted effort to support Harry and make this work. If the club put as much effort into original cars as it does dealing with and welcoming new coachwork cars, thing would be very different. I do believe that originals can be judged as it works well with the AACA HPOF class and currently there are two different teams at Pebble Beach that manage to judge preservation cars. I have evaluated classics many times for ribbons at Grand Classics, and have seldom had a problem reaching a consensus with the other directors who looked at them. I guess that we weren't judging them as there is no judging class, but I don't think it is impossible to give the cars that full measure of recognition, and a trophy. It may not be easy, and time may make it more difficult, but time also makes judging authenticity more difficult and the club doesn't back down from that, and takes pride in using hobbyists from the general membership to do it. You may give out one trohpy too many, but that happens when judging restored cars too. In fact, the more original cars we lose as benchmarks for restoration, the harder it will be to judge authenticity. If the original cars garner more attention, perhaps one day we will have one that has a chance to be judged as an equal of the restored cars. Until then, it seems that the club will continue to treat them as second class cars and members like our friend who replied previously will take his car to AACA meets instead, which will only be a loss to the CCCA. The more "dipped in plastic" restored cars I see, the more I appreciate those that are original.

I was fascinated by the '29 Lincoln Town Car with Derham Bodywork in the CCCA room at Gilmore Classic Car Museum, strictly because it is an all original car.

What fascinated me about that car, beyond it's very pristine condition (replace the running board rubber, and most would think it a new car!), was that my Dad probably saw that car on a regular basis, at the exclusive rose nursery for which he was the senior gardener for in the late 1920's! Dad probably even rode in that car, when the chauffeur went to pick him up and take him to the owner's estate to counsel the gardener as to how to plant and care for the fine rose bushes.

Neat thought, anyway!

Art Anderson

What a great story Art, thanks for sharing it. I think that the history behind these cars is absolutely fascinating and whenever one can get even a small piece of it, that is a tantalizing glimpse into a different world. The most fun is to find that elusive and very personal connection that you found with the Lincoln. I will remember fondly when the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the original owner of my Swedish bodied Packard came to see the old family car, and the day I spent with Chris Bohman's widow riding in the car her husband worked on some 57 years before.

The classics, often owned by people who had things like wonderful private rose gardens (tended by a staff gardener), evoke thoughts of a life of style and grace and the ability to have things that were the best they could be, in every way pleasing to the senses. For me, the original cars are particularly like time machines in that sense, and for that reason I am more concerned with preserving them. I have seen cars restored to get trophies that didn't need to be done, and when they are it seems like a little bit of that history slips away.