Classic Velocity

The weather was not cooperating. Labor Day weekend is intended to be summer’s last fling here in the northeast, and I have been at Lime Rock Motorsports Park when it was sweltering. I have also been there when rain pelted the tent all night, and you were unexpectedly greeted by a freezing cold morning. This year it was a perfectly pleasant barbecue evening on Friday, followed by a torrential downpour with an impressive hour-long lightning show on Saturday night.  Sunday varied between a few brief showers and a few brief periods of warm sunshine. Umbrellas and Italian Ice within minutes of each other.

Fortunately, the weather forecast is not a deterrent to the throngs that show up for both the vintage racing and the Concours on Sunday. This event has been covered in the blog before, and this year I want to concentrate on the Sunday portion of the activities which is the car show/Concours. Although the weather undoubtedly have some impact on the cars that showed up on Sunday, it was difficult to tell how much as it was still an entire race track full of cool machines. For those not familiar, lime rock arranges its car show around the 1.5-mile track. Different marques gather at different sections of the track making it both convenient to find your favorite and advantageous to walk the whole thing.

The BMW 2002 contingent was there in force as usual for the 02 fest east, and it was the 50th-anniversary celebration of the Porsche 911, so they were the featured marque. Ironically, I drove neither as I had a large parts transaction to conduct and the tow vehicle was in order. Speaking of support vehicles, a couple of superb ones were on hand this year. A Fiat Maserati support truck, and an Alfa Romeo support van. The best of the show for me though was a 1953 Mercedes 220b in the same family since new. It had not been shown in 30 years, and the owner spent a few minutes going over the car with me. What a jewel, and it rightfully won an award. As usual, words can not do justice to the great variety of vehicles on hand, so the links to the album and the slideshow are provided.