Re: Packard wins Best of Show at Pebble Beach

Posted by Craig the Clipper Man On 2013/8/20 14:33:26

Amen to you too, Overdrive! The cars trailered in and out of Pebble Beach, et al., have very little in common with the original vehicle. If you ever haver the chance to take a really close look at a genuine original (i.e. unrestored) custom job like Dietrich, Murphy, or Rollson, what you will often find is a bit of a chop job. Basically these shops modified original bodies with crap like those ridiculous balloon fenders on the Best of Show Packard. Sometimes, especially in the case of Dutch Darrin, they added stuff made by other manufacturers. And even more frequently, the overall quality of the custom job does not stack up well against the original, factory produced car. If it takes a professional restorer about 10,000 hours to cobble together a concourse show car, somebody has more money than good sense when it comes to car collecting.

Most people who collect cars are not zillionaires, just normal folks who buy what they can afford and in most cases, probably have a lot more invested in terms of sweat equity, actual time on the road, and genuine affection for whatever normal car they possess than some super-rich investor looking to turn a profit when he dumps his show winner.