Remember the term respect your elders? (Showing my age, I know.) Each time I attend a car auction I am often shocked at the “not sold” or what I term dismal money exchanged for what are remarkable vehicles which have reached or almost reached the 100 year old mark. Some of these cars are lookers, others a mechanics’s dream but the handcrafted details and newly created engineering encased in these early automobiles leaves me wondering why do they garner such little respect? 
Have you ever heard of a 1906 Adams-Farwell 6A Connolly Runabout? 
1912 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Labourdette Torpedo
1913 Pierce-Arrow 38-C Runabout
Name is not always indicative of value either. Some big names get big money while others sit there. A 1919 Pierce-Arrow Model 38 Dual Valve Four Passenger Roadster faltered during the 2012 Gooding & Company Pebble Beach auction at a mere $140,000 – not sold. However a 1917 Packard Twin Six 2-35 Landaulet went home with a new owner for $175,000.
What I can tell is these centenarians seem to get very little respect. Those big (often) brass headlamps, luxurious coach building and marvels of engineering genius are passed over for something sleeker and not always easier to care for.
Imagine the shear fortitude it must have taken these men to truly innovate before so many others, but many car people just look the other way. Why? Why? Why? If we don’t take an interest and preserve these they could be gone. Do we really need one more Pontiac GTO or phony Shelby Cobra? Seriously though, we can’t just rely on Jay (Leno) to preserve everything – but what a fine job he does. Nice car blog too.
For more Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and Car Week coverage check out my earlier posts:
- Happy New Year with Rolls Royce Models Which Turn 100
- It’s Okay To Look At My Rear
- A Nice Ghost: The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
- Pebble Beach 2011 Concours d’Elegance Field Highlights
- Whittell Duesenberg
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