Art of the Car Concours

It seems I can’t get enough of Kansas City, Missouri these days. I was recently in the KC suburb of Peculiar in May for Pete & Jake’s 40th anniversary, and I just returned from the 8th annual Art of the Car Concours held in and around the Kansas City Country Club Plaza District and the University of Missouri Campus. My wife Carol and I were invited to participate in introducing hot rods to the 2014 Concours by good friend Ken Gross and Concours Chairman Marshall Miller. The date was set for three days after the SO-CAL Open House, so you know we could use a break.

The first of three Concours events was a breakfast buffet in the Plaza at Tivol Jewelry, where examples of Concours-type participant automobiles were shown. There were some great cars on display, but I had my eye on a Honduras Maroon ’53 Buick Skylark—my dad’s all-time favorite.

The second event was Meet the Legends held at the Miller Nichols Library on the campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The audience was entertained by a well-prepared slide show introducing hot rods to the Concours crowd, while moderator Ken Gross fielded Q&A for Tom McIntyre, Jerry Slover, Ken Schmidt, Richard Munz, Michael Lynch and me. The questions came quick, and I believe we were able to bring the hot rod lifestyle into perspective. I did see a lot of smiles in the audience, and quite a few thank-you handshakes on the field the next day.

The third event, of course, was the Concours itself held on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus. We were on hand for the 6:30 a.m. move-in along with our personal hosts Gary and Arlene Krings (the best) to watch the magic. The show is well organized: all 250 cars were in place in about an hour. This particular Concours doesn’t have individual classes and the trophies are either people’s choice or awards by sponsors; it’s unusual but effective.

Just a few of the hot rods representing the sport were the Doane Spencer ’32 Hiboy (Bruce Meyer), the Ray Brown ‘32 Hiboy (Petersen Museum), Pete & Jake’s ’34 coupes (Jerry Slover), Dick Munz’s Brizio-built ’32 roadster, Tom McIntyre’s Rolling Bones ’32 coupe and Don Armacost’s ’32 Cabriolet.

Carol and I had a wonderful time, the weather was perfect, our room at the Raphael Hotel was stunning, and the surroundings very impressive, but it’s the people that made it great. Thanks to all for another spectacular automotive weekend.

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