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.