Kansas City Auto Show

Cars are art at KC show

At the Art of the Car Concours at the Kansas City Art Institute, a popular but psychologically painful exercise is the &#x201C;People&#x2019;s Choice&#x201D; award, which lets visitors vote for their favorite vehicle.</p><p> But just one.</p><p>&#x201C;It hurts,&#x201D; said John Gartin of Kansas City.</p><p>That&#x2019;s because visitors to the annual car show &#x2014; Sunday was the fifth &#x2014; stroll past one beauty after another. Gartin&#x2019;s wife, Cheri, was about to announce her favorite when another car caught her eye.</p><p>&#x201C;I just spotted a Jaguar over there,&#x201D; she said. &#x201C;Now that&#x2019;s my favorite.&#x201D;</p><p>&#x201C;I&#x2019;ve never seen another car show with this kind of variety,&#x201D; John Gartin said.</p><p>The show featured more than 180 vintage and classic cars, trucks and motorcycles. Proceeds from ticket sales and sponsorships benefited the Kansas City Art Institute&#x2019;s scholarship fund.</p><p> Marshall Miller, founder of the car show and event chairman, said the concours had grown to be the largest of its kind in the Midwest and is attracting an ever-bigger crowd.</p><p>&#x201C;We estimated 5,000, and I think we&#x2019;ll be there,&#x201D; said Miller, who assured visitors and car exhibitors that the thickening clouds just past noon would blow over.</p><p>&#x201C;Everybody keep calm,&#x201D; he said on a loudspeaker. &#x201C;There will be no rain.&#x201D;</p><p>Still, Steve and Carolyn Brown of Kansas City glanced skyward a few times as they toured; they had come to the car show on their bicycles. The Browns don&#x2019;t restore or collect cars, but they appreciated the vintage models.</p><p>&#x201C;We drive our cars till they&#x2019;re vintage, and then we sell them,&#x201D; Steve Brown joked.</p><p>They particularly enjoyed the 1948 Daimler Green Goddess, which Carolyn Brown called &#x201C;gorgeous,&#x201D; and a 1921 Daniels D-19 Brougham DeVille, which the owner started up as a couple of dozen visitors quickly gathered around.</p><p>Collectors and restorers from Missouri, Kansas and six other states were on hand to talk about their vehicles.</p><p>Vincent Dean of Leawood knew since he was a teenager in the 1960s that he wanted to own a Shelby Cobra one day. He was 16 when he saw one with his father on a visit to Broadway Motors Ford.</p><p>About 10 years ago, Dean&#x2019;s twin brother called with news that there was a 1966 Shelby Cobra on eBay he should take a look at. Dean negotiated and bought the bright red roadster.</p><p>&#x201C;Now I&#x2019;ve got two more,&#x201D; Dean said. &#x201C;I race one, and one I use as a street car. This one I show.&#x201D;</p><p>Pointing out features of his midnight blue 1912 Ford Model T, Jim Thomas of Olathe explained how a carbide generator on the side of the touring car fueled the headlamps. He noted that this model featured full brass and genuine leather, details later lost to mass production.</p><p>&#x201C;I&#x2019;m really into cars, period, but I dearly wanted a brass Model T,&#x201D; said Thomas, who started faithfully restoring the car in 2001 and finished the work last September. He spent about $30,000.</p><p>&#x201C;If my wife would let me, I&#x2019;d park it in the living room. It&#x2019;s a work of art as far as I&#x2019;m concerned.&#x201D;</p><p>Visitors&#x2019; ballots were tallied Sunday afternoon. The top vote-getter for the People&#x2019;s Choice award was the 1936 Stout Scarab owned by Dick and Lenore Taylor of Lumberton, N.C.

HOVER MOTOR COMPANY: Cops and rodders. The Kansas City car show ...

Lee's Summit, Mo. John Knox Village USA Birthday Celebration . Parade at 1:30 p.m. Entrants form on the south side of the Pavilion Building at 1:00 p.m. Uncle Sam’s Birthday Party 2:30 p.m. JKV veteran's recognition at 5:00 p.m. US Air Force Concert Band 5:30-7:30 p.m. For more information, call Dick at (816) 246-2626, or e-mail R.Clough@kc.rr.com . The annual 400-miler under the lights in Daytona for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is a Fourth of July weekend tradition. And after last weekend’s demolition derby in Sonoma, everyone seems to be good and mad at each other, which should result in fireworks on the track as well as in the sky. The Nationwide Series is also running at Daytona, while the Camping World Trucks have the weekend off.  For more information, visit http://www.nascar.com/ .

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