Picture Time: Vintage American Luxury From Keeneland Concours
The other weekend, I traveled down to the rolling green acres of Kentucky for the annual Keeneland Concours event. There was a wide selection of vehicles at the show, and I love taking pictures.
Read on if you’re ready for some vintage American luxury.
This Imperial Newport was the top offering from Chrysler in 1955, sold under separate luxury marque Imperial.
Imperial styling was not bashful — acres of chrome and the stand-up rear lamps assured you were noticed.
Real wire wheels and real metal trim. Luxury.
The 1963 Ford Thunderbird was the last year of the second-generation model.
Viewed from the rear, the styling is pure spaceship.
Two rather wealthy persons can sit in front, with the 6.4-liter V8 stretched out miles ahead of them.
Produced for 1956 through 1958, the Studebaker Golden Hawk was the top of the line coupe offering from the South Bend, Indiana firm.
The company dropped the luxurious Golden Hawk from its lineup after a brief but sharp recession in 1958 led to dismal sales.
For 1957 and ’58, Studebaker supercharged its 4.7-liter V8, boosting output to a very sporting 275 horsepower.
The sheer size of this Pontiac Bonneville from 1965 was impressive.
The flowing lines of the fourth-generation model were quite a departure from prior Bonnevilles, which favored a more squared-off approach to styling.
Available for 1946 through 1948, the Chrysler Town and Country sedan featured some amazing woodwork.
1950 was the final model year for any real “woodie” offering from Chrysler. In 1951, a new Town and Country generation debuted with a distinct lack of exterior tree.
That’s all for today. Let us know if you’d like more Concours Picture Time editions.
[Images: © Corey Lewis]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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In the words of the "Andrea True Connection": MORE, MORE, MORE!! :-)
More photos. . . Yes! As a high school kid during the mid-60s, I always thought the big Pontiacs had the most presence. Was grateful for my Dad's 66 Impala to tool around in. Regarding the unaerodynamic qualities of the 50s monsters, it's worth remembering that the era predates the Interstate system. The highest speed limit was 60, and many were 50. If you want to experience the joys of early freeways, take a drive on the Pasadena freeway in Los Angeles and imagine taking its curves at 60 mph on bias-ply tires in a vintage chrome barge. Heck even the Washington Beltway (I-495), built in the late 50s, had some inadequately banked curves in one section that would regularly spin out VW Beetles in the rain, driving at legal speeds (also rear-engined Corvairs).