{"id":2640,"date":"2005-06-08T02:22:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-08T06:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/06\/elegant-design\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:05","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:05","slug":"elegant-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/06\/elegant-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Elegant Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Siata<\/a><\/p>\n

The cars headlining the CarPort are seldom elegant. That in itself is reason to take a breather from the rusty and underloved cars you usually see here and indulge in a full week of elegance. There’s no better example of elegance than this Siata 208S spider.<\/p>\n

“Elegant,” to engineers, means no more complicated than necessary to perform its intended function. That sums up the Siata, a truly simple sporting machine, so basic that it has no speedometer,
\nonly a tach<\/a>. Under the skin, though, it’s not so simple, for it has a Fiat 8V engine, a two-litre 70-degree pushrod V8 that makes a glorious noise. It was one of some 300 cars exhibited this past weekend at the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance<\/a> in Connecticut.<\/p>\n

This was the tenth annual Greenwich Concours, conceived and chaired by Bruce and Genia Wennerstrom<\/a> and held at
\nwater’s edge<\/a> in scenic Greenwich Harbor. Not all cars had the simple elegance of the Siata. Saturday’s best of show, a
\n1929 Hibbard and Darrin-bodied Stutz<\/a>, held high its distinctive Woodlites, and Sunday’s best, Jack Thomas’s
\nFerrari 375 America<\/a>, built for Gianni Agnelli<\/a>, looked
\nless Ferrari-like<\/a> than the
\nSiata<\/a> beside it.<\/p>\n

There were Packards galore, including a yummy
\nbutterscotch 120B victoria<\/a> with body by LeBaron and a
\n1935 Super Eight 7-passenger sedan<\/a> recently unearthed by movie car mogul Nick Pagani (seen here<\/a> with his
\nnamesake car<\/a> brought by another exhibitor).<\/p>\n

There were cars of personalities, like
\nErnie Kovacs’ 1951 Bentley Mark VI<\/a> and Henry Crane’s own
\nCrane Simplex<\/a>.
\nMrs. Crane<\/a> thoughtfully took time from her reading to tell us about the car, as did
\nMaster Tomko<\/a> for his father’s 1912 Buick, once in the Dick Teague collection.<\/p>\n

Spectators could see
\nengines<\/a>, and automotive spectacles, like a
\nKaiser<\/a> doffing its
\ntop<\/a>. Celebrities included veteran race driver
\nJohn Fitch<\/a> (being interviewed by Bob Long for Motor Trend Weekend radio), who brought his one-off
\nPhoenix<\/a>, and pioneer female racer Janet Guthrie<\/a>, signing copies of her new autobiography A Life at Full Throttle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A circle titled the “Best of the Best” highlighted winners from earlier years, like Brian Beni’s 1935
\nSS1 Airline coupe<\/a> and Sam Mann’s
\nDodge Firearrow<\/a>. Recently liberated from New Europe was a
\nTatra T613<\/a>, contrasted by a meticulously-restored “Frog Eye” MkI
\nAustin-Healey Sprite<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Greenwich Concours d’Elegance benefits Americares<\/a>, a non-profit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization. It is held each year on the first weekend in June at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park in Greenwich, Connecticut. Put Greenwich<\/a> on your itinerary for 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cars headlining the CarPort are seldom elegant. That in itself is reason to take a breather from the rusty and underloved cars you usually see here and indulge in a full week of elegance. There’s no better example of elegance than this Siata 208S spider. “Elegant,” to engineers, means no more complicated than necessary….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3434,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions\/3434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}