Wednesday, August 12, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
7
Glorious relics of a bygone age live on
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
Some date back to the
early days of the automobile
industry. Some are paragons
of the golden age of style in
the 1930s and ’40s. And none
of them are museum pieces —
they are all roadworthy repre-
sentatives of a past that con-
tinues to live on the American
highway.
The past was very much
present last Thursday at Black
Butte Ranch as dozens of
vintage automobiles rolled
in for a lunch break at The
Lodge. They were all part of
the Pebble Beach Motoring
Classic, which wends its way
each August from Washington
to Pebble Beach, California
— with a stopover in Sisters.
There were millions of
dollars in restored vintage
cars parked on the lawn near
The Lodge — from a Packard
12 to historic Bentley rac-
ers, from a Cadillac that
looked like something John
Dillinger drove to sleek
Jaguars. The Hispano-Suiza
luxury cars of the 1930s were
well-represented.
Sisters resident Pete
Kershaw was one of the
many onlookers who studied
the glorious vehicles as they
glinted in the Central Oregon
sunshine. He noted one of the
signal aspects of the Pebble
Beach Motoring Classic:
these extraordinarily valuable
vehicles aren’t just for show
— they’re on the road.
“What’s astonishing is
that they didn’t come down
here on a truck,” he said.
“They drove down from
Washington.”
And later in the day, some
of these classics could be seen
tooling around Sisters, with
some taking a side trip up the
McKenzie Pass.
A sizeable crowd gath-
ered around the vehicles as
the drivers headed into The
Lodge for lunch.
The cars evoked not only
automotive history, but some
beloved literary icons as well.
One onlooker pointed out a
Bentley racing car c. 1920.
“My granddaughter looked
at this one and said ‘Oh! This
is from Chitty-Chitty-Bang-
Bang!’” she said.
The owners often purchase
the vehicles in rough and run-
down condition, then invest
thousands of dollars into res-
toration. Original parts must
be scrounged up and they
often don’t come cheap. The
chrome and steel shine, the
paint glows rich and deep, and
the interiors are magnificent.
Ron Danz drove his Jaguar
onto the lawn with his wife in
the shotgun seat. He described
the luxurious wood-and-
leather interior as a classic
photo by ceili corneliuS
one kid thought this Bentley racer was from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!”
“English interior.” That’s
what his wife likes.
And, he said, “If you have
a wife who likes to do cars
with you, you should go with
that.”
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photo by ceili corneliuS
A couple of dozen vintage cars trekked oregon’s highways enroute to Pebble Beach.
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