Re: The unrestored '34 Twelve Dietrich convertible sedan seen at the Centennial

Posted by 1508 On 2016/6/30 21:58:25

One thing left out here is that the owner of this car at the time DROVE it to Warren from New Jersey. It wasn't trailered and no one followed him in a modern car either. I think he even had a minor mechanical issue along the way and he fixed it himself using his own ingenuity and skill. I believe he had owned it since at least the 1960's. I also remember he had it running at one point on the show field and someone said, "oh, he's going to start it up." The person next to him replied "it IS running." It was that quiet you couldn't hear it idling. That meet represented the end of an era in some ways. A lot of owners who brought cars had owned them since the 1950's or 60's, and the Warren 1999 Centennial Meet was their last hurrah. That was 17 years ago now. How many are no longer with us?

While the subject car here certainly received an authentic restoration in good colors, part of me liked it the way it was too. Just a driver condition car in mostly original condition save for the decades old, slapped on white paint job. It seemed more like a real car in 1999. One you could get in and drive and have fun with, which is exactly what the previous owner did with it. Now it's just another perfectly restored car that's part of a mega collection, trailered from concours to concours and accumulating no miles. The guy with the hard hat is the one who really enjoyed the car.