One of the highlights for us at this year's Greenwich Concours d'Elegance was meeting, chatting with and getting to know actor Edward Herrmann of WB network's "The Gilmore Girls" and a veteran of 30 years on stage, screen and TV. Herrmann, who lives in nearby Litchfield County with his wife, family and three vintage cars, was the honorary chief judge this year, and he showed early and often that he knows his stuff when it comes to vintage cars. He told us he is lusting after an Austin-Healey 100M, so if you know of anybody....
We haven't the space to cover all 48 of approximately 125 cars that picked up trophies at Greenwich this year, but we will certainly run through the highlights for you. As we said at the top, this was definitely the best overall field of cars we've seen in five straight years of covering Greenwich, so the judges, including your humble scribe, are having a harder and harder time of it each year in determining who goes home with the biggest smile and the biggest trophy.
Best In Show this year at Concours Europa was the amazingly clean and characterful 1951 Bentley Drophead Coupe brought to the event by Dale Ladner, a car so beautiful it also won Most Distinguished Rolls-Royce, which included Bentley this year.
Next year, of course, the Wennerstroms will have to deal with a separate Bentley category, and believe us, the Wennerstroms know how to adapt to quickly changing circumstances, as evidenced last year by their in-the-rain performance.
Our pick this year for european car magazine's annual Best Car for the Monte Carlo Rally was a lip-smacking, hubba-hubba, eat-off-my-paint 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL roadster lovingly restored by Allan Sockol.
Jeff Mamorsky, a longtime supporter of the Greenwich event, took home two "Brucies," as we have come to call the Greenwich trophies, one for his 1957 Ferrari 250 GT coupe for Best Italian Sports/Touring Car, 1957-58, and another for Best Italian Sports Car for his 1960 Ferrari 250 GT.
One of the best of the many late-model British cars on the field this year was New York restaurateur Jean Denoyer's 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Vantage coupe, perfectly restored in green and saddle, which won Best English Sports Car, 1959-65. And Jim Glickenhaus of Manhattan, who brought a streetgoing Lola T70 coupe with a turbo big-block Chevy in it, this year brought a street-ready Ford GT40, the car that came in second to Foyt and Gurney in 1967 at Le Mans.
On the whimsical end of the spectrum, Lance and Melissa Levethan's 1961 Fiat Jolly beach wagon won Best Special Interest Car, and Bruce and Cathy Baker's 1959 BMW 600 Isetta won Most Outstanding Small Car. Best Limited Production Car was taken by Rick Rothenberger's 1953 Cunningham C2, and Best Vintage Vehicle overall went to Malcolm Pray's 1936 Wanderer roadster, the event program's cover car and predecessor to the Audi A4 Cabriolet.
We'll move over now and let Tim McKinney and his pal John's photos show you what it was like at Greenwich this year.
Visit europeancarweb.com for more photos from this very special gathering.
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Greenwich Concours d'Elegance
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