Klockau in Geneva, Year Two
Last year, at the urging of my friends in the Lake Shore Region of the LCOC, I attended the Geneva Concours for the first time. And that’s Geneva, IL, not Switzerland. Convenient to St. Charles, IL and other upscale Chicago outer ‘burbs.
I had a fine time, despite making the MAJOR mistake of arriving around 12:30, which was high tide, visitor wise.
As a result, I had to drive around after arriving in town for approximately a half hour, searching for a place to park. Eventually I did find a space, which was about ten blocks away. Yay. Not.
So this year I was bound and determined to get there frickin’ early! And I did. The show officially started at 10 AM; I arrived at about 9:40. And managed to snag a spot one block from the event. As Mr. Burns would say, excellent.
Almost immediately I was richly rewarded with the kind of classic cars I almost never see, like this Citroen DS! And it wasn’t even in the show. Later on I passed this same spot and it was gone.
This 1958 Silver Wraith was also amazing, although initially I thought it was a Phantom V, I chatted with the owner, who was very friendly, and he corrected my mistake.
Well, as you likely know, I’m not as conversant on these as, say, 1970s Cadillacs. But it was suitably fantastic.
No matter what you like, there’s likely something at this show you’ll love. Like this guacamole and sour cream-hued 1974 GMC.
Or an ‘88 560SEC. Boy did I love these. The current S-Class is no slouch, but it almost looks like an Altima compared to this!
It was hot, but I was going nowhere! Everywhere I turned, there was something interesting. It actually got difficult to decide which way to go. Any way you looked, there was something fantastic.
But the hands-down top amazing car was this supercharged 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K. When I saw it, I almost fainted, ha!
Of course I have many models of this car, and even a great coffee table book on them, but this was the very first time I’d seen one in person.
It was so fantastic, I temporarily forgot about the 300SL Gullwing displayed next to it.
Here it is, by the way!
And my friend Jim was one of the judges. After he finished his duties we wandered around, comparing which were our favorites. All in all, a fantastic day, and I totally wore myself out! But it was worth it.
that bentley is wonderful
still hate the targa top porsches though
I bought a 1972 Citroen DS21 Pallas for $600, circa 1991. It was in rough shape.
One peculiarity I was not prepared for was that the car's design was a monocoque body that was rather flimsy, supported by frame rails that were made up of several layers of FOLDED SHEET METAL. As in, take a wide piece of sheet metal, probably about 9 feet wide, and make a right-angle bend in the first three or four inches, and then make another right-angle bend, and another. I assume that they squirted goop between the layers after the first "box section" was completed. Of course, once a little water works its way in, rust has its way. IIRC, at that time, replacement frame rails were $4,000 the pair, plus shipping. I could not get the motor to turn, so it looked like the motor would have to come out.
So, I advertised the car for parts, and a couple came down from New Hampshire and bought it for the bordello-quality interior, which was in good shape. They had an ID19, so they could just replace their vinyl interior with the leather interior. That was the only time I ever made money selling a collector car!