Elegant Design

The cars headlining the CarPort are seldom elegant. That in itself is reason to take a breather from the rusty and underloved cars you usually see here and indulge in a full week of elegance. There's no better example of elegance than this Siata 208S spider.

"Elegant," to engineers, means no more complicated than necessary to perform its intended function. That sums up the Siata, a truly simple sporting machine, so basic that it has no speedometer, only a tach. Under the skin, though, it's not so simple, for it has a Fiat 8V engine, a two-litre 70-degree pushrod V8 that makes a glorious noise. It was one of some 300 cars exhibited this past weekend at the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance in Connecticut.

This was the tenth annual Greenwich Concours, conceived and chaired by Bruce and Genia Wennerstrom and held at water's edge in scenic Greenwich Harbor. Not all cars had the simple elegance of the Siata. Saturday's best of show, a 1929 Hibbard and Darrin-bodied Stutz, held high its distinctive Woodlites, and Sunday's best, Jack Thomas's Ferrari 375 America, built for Gianni Agnelli, looked less Ferrari-like than the Siata beside it.

There were Packards galore, including a yummy butterscotch 120B victoria with body by LeBaron and a 1935 Super Eight 7-passenger sedan recently unearthed by movie car mogul Nick Pagani (seen here with his namesake car brought by another exhibitor).

There were cars of personalities, like Ernie Kovacs' 1951 Bentley Mark VI and Henry Crane's own Crane Simplex. Mrs. Crane thoughtfully took time from her reading to tell us about the car, as did Master Tomko for his father's 1912 Buick, once in the Dick Teague collection.

Spectators could see engines, and automotive spectacles, like a Kaiser doffing its top. Celebrities included veteran race driver John Fitch (being interviewed by Bob Long for Motor Trend Weekend radio), who brought his one-off Phoenix, and pioneer female racer Janet Guthrie, signing copies of her new autobiography A Life at Full Throttle.

A circle titled the "Best of the Best" highlighted winners from earlier years, like Brian Beni's 1935 SS1 Airline coupe and Sam Mann's Dodge Firearrow. Recently liberated from New Europe was a Tatra T613, contrasted by a meticulously-restored "Frog Eye" MkI Austin-Healey Sprite.

The Greenwich Concours d'Elegance benefits Americares, a non-profit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization. It is held each year on the first weekend in June at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park in Greenwich, Connecticut. Put Greenwich on your itinerary for 2006.