Yesterday I posted a detail shot from this 1957 Buick Century Wagon which I saw at the 2011 Concours d’Elegance of America show at St. Johns. It seemed to be popular so I’m posting a couple more shots today. The shot above shows another detail element of the car and the picture below gives you a look at the entire car. Processing on the first image was similar to yesterday’s shot. I used Topaz Detail on ‘Abstraction’ to smooth out some of the details, mostly in the paint, and then masked out the key elements such as the chrome ‘Caballero’ badge. For the bottom image, I used Topaz Simplify to make the background more abstract and painterly, but I masked out the car itself.

I’m slowly going back over some images that I shot over the summer to find ones that I either overlooked or never got a chance to work with. This image comes from the 2011 Concours d’Elegance of America show held at St. John’s near Plymouth, Michigan. The car is a 1957 Buick Century Caballero Estate Wagon. What caught my eye when I saw it was the interesting “Mint Green and Dover White” color scheme and interesting styling. As I was processing the image, the thought crossed my mind that the image sort of looks like the Eye of Horus with the exhaust ports being the eyebrow and the tire being the eye.

Yesterday I posted an image of a 1935 Duesenberg taken at the 2008 Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall. This image was taken from the 2007 Concours and was my first time visiting the show. The car in this image is a 1933 Packard V-12 Convertible Coupe, and is just one of fifty that were ever built. When new, the car sold for $4,000, which in 1933 was a great deal of money.

The Deusenberg is one of my favorite classic automobiles. The car just exudes power and class, and the companies that did the coachwork created automobiles with wonderful details. I took this shot at the 2008 Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan. The car is a 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Roadster with coachwork by Bohman and Schwartz. The car has an interesting history. According to information displayed with the car, the automobile was purchased for Clark Gable from his wife, Carole Lombard. Gable owned the car until 1942 until his wife’s death at which time it was given away with instructions that it never be seen in California while he was still alive.

The mid 30′s Cord automobile has long been a favorite of mine. The distinctive feature being the ‘coffin’ nose and the exposed exhausts. On of my favorite Cord’s is a model 810. The car was introduced at the 1936 New York, Los Angeles and Chicago auto shows. The show car was unique in that it had copper accents. The show car is on display at the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg museum in Auburn, Indiana. The 810 was designed by noted car designer Gordon Buehrig. The 810 was originally going to be a 1935 Duesenberg but after incorporating a front wheel drive design, the vehicle was renamed Cord.

Here’s another shot taken at the 2011 Concours d’Elegance of America held in Plymouth, Michigan. This one shows a detail of the engine cowling of a 1940 Packard 180 Convertible Victoria. The Packard Motor Car Company started life in 1899 as the Ohio Automobile Company. Packard started the company after accepting a challenge from Alexander Winton to build a better car than was being produced by the Winton Motor Carriage Company. The Winton company was one of the first companies to sell motor cars and Packard had complained to Winton about the quality of his car. Packard changed the name of his company to the Packard Motor Car Company in 1902 and moved to Detroit in 1903.

I went to the Concours d’Elegance of America car show today. The event used to be known as the Meadowbrook Concours, but for a variety of reasons the show had to move to a new location. This year the event was held at St. Johns near Plymouth, Michigan. I believe the show had over 300 cars of various vintages and styles. My favorites tend to be the cars of the 30′s but there are interesting aspects to most cars displayed at this event.

This past weekend I attended the 2010 Meadowbrook Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall on the campus of Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan. The show is never a disappointment, with a large collection of classic automobiles. I really enjoying photographing the details of classic cars. The cars, particularly of the 30′s and 40′s were a wonderful combination of art and engineering. A perfect example is shown above.

This shot shows a 1936 Cord 810 S/C Phaeton which was on display at the 2009 Concours d’Elegance car show held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan. I’ve always been attracted to the Cord, particularly those from the mid 1930′s. I love the design elements, particularly the ‘coffin’ nose and the exposed exhaust pipes. The car just has great lines and exudes class.

I originally posted this image on Flickr shortly after the event. A couple weeks later I was surprised to receive an e-mail from the owner! His daughter had seen the picture on Flickr and had told her dad. One of the highlights for me about this car was the unique color. …

Every year I look forward to the Concours d’Elegance car show held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Each year this car show brings in over 200 classic cars, many of which are rarely seen in public. This year was the 30th year the event had been held at Meadowbrook. For those unfamiliar with automobile history, Meadowbrook Hall was built by Matilda Dodge Wilson and her second husband Alfred Wilson. Matilda was the widow of John Dodge, one of the founders of the Dodge Brothers Company which was later sold to Chrysler. Hence, this location is a very appropriate place to hold a car show.