Sculpture Gallery

Everyone smiles when they see a VW Type 2 window van. The more windows, the bigger the smile. The Type 2 certainly wasn’t fast, but it was versatile and reliable. Owners loved them. Being a VW owner in the 1950s and 1960s was the equivalent of being an Apple owner 20 years ago, or perhaps a Tesla owner today. You marched defiantly to a different drummer.

Briggs Swift Cunningham Junior, did more to elevate the American Road Racing colors (white with blue stripes) than anyone else in the 1950’s and early 1960s. He was an organizer and promoter, an entrant, constructor and a driver, dealer and distributor. His number one goal was to win Le Mans with an American car and American drivers. He came up a little short, but earned the respect of everyone with his grace, perseverance, and sense of fair play.

Among the most beautiful racing automobiles ever produced is the Maserati 450S. To this day, its lines and mechanical character possess brutish undertones. Masculine to the core. Like many of the cars we cherish today, the 450S did not accomplish its stated goal in-period.

Lincoln, Mercury, and Ford each had strikingly modern body styling debut for the 1949 model year. Each set new sales records. Hollywood, hot rodders, and customizers all fell hard for the ’49 Merc…..

“Barchetta” translated from Italian means “small boat” or “skiff”. The term also fell into popular usage for small open sports prototype racing cars in the post- WWII years. Today’s Ferrari also uses the term Barchetta liberally when describing its latest, heritage-inspired, open-cockpit Monza SP1 and SP2 projects.

The Jaguar D-Type’s reason for being was to win LeMans. It fulfilled that role admirably, winning in 1955, ’56, and ’57, or “Troispétition” (french slang for three-peat). The sophisticated D-Type was not nearly as successful at the less-smooth circuits in the motorsport calendar.

The Daytona was the most sporting road Ferrari when I came of age. Then, I subscribed to the theory that real Ferraris had V12s up front and just two seats. A lot of car enthusiasts from my generation subscribed to the same thought process.

The BMW M1 had a complex international gestation. Its birth established several firsts for the Bavarian brand. As a toddler, the M1 got its own F1-style sandbox. The Giugiaro-BMW Motorsport mashup lives on today as a classic Italian styling landmark cross-pollinated with proper, stolid Teutonic engineering.

Since 1996, Ferrari reverted to front-engine placement for its core V-12 product, the two-seat Grand Tourer. Intermittently, Ferrari has released limited-edition hot rods based on these front-engine GTs….. including the 599 GTO, the F12 TdF, and the 812 Monza SP.

The E9 re-established BMW as a purveyor of high-style, high-end coupes. “Batmobile” E9 versions signaled BMW staking its claim in the high-performance marketplace.

Jaguar’s Low Drag Coupe (LDC) E-Type was created in the early 1960s to further the racing legacy established during the 1950s by the C-Type and D-Type. Three LDC racers were built, each quasi-works. While the Low Drag Coupe captured styling hearts it saw no major competition victories. The LDC is yet another gorgeous competition model that failed to deliver on in its in-period goals.

I didn’t experience much angst in deciding Japan’s representative for the Seven Nations – Seven Cars exhibit at Monterey’s Quail Gathering.

The first time I attended Monterey Week back in the 1990s I decided I had to determine what for me was the most visually satisfying car. I can’t remember the runner-ups, but I remember the winner — it was the Muira.

Sweden has less than 10 million people. There are many developed countries with far more population than Sweden that didn’t make the Seven Countries-Seven Cars exhibit at the Quail Gathering.

This car only competed in one event, and didn’t win. Yet its form is so evocative that we remember it and not the model that was the race victor.

Who is Rudi? The name comes from MB Racing Director Rudi Uhlenhaut. How did this gorgeous car become his ride?

The name Porsche bestowed on the model was “Carrera GTS”, though most refer to it as the Porsche internal project title of “904”.

The Aston Martin One77 is my choice to represent the UK in the Seven Nations – Seven Cars exhibit presented at the Quail Gathering in Monterey, Seven Nations.

These cars are rare…..just four made. They are exceeding valuable, with one price guide listing the “high” value at $34,000,000.