Jaguar Club Plans 45th Concours d'Elegance
Star of the show: Movie actor Clark Gable's restored, customized Jaguar XK 120
Photo courtesy of Jaguar Drivers Club of Long Island
The Jaguar Drivers Club of Long Island will hold its 45th Annual Jaguar Invitational Concours d'Elegance, a show of vintage and modern automobiles, on the Great Lawn at the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum overlooking Northport Bay on Sunday, September 16, from 11:00 to 4:00. (Rain date: September 23.)
The show is open to British and selected international vehicles of all years, makes, and models. A highlight of the show will be the display of a 1952 Jaguar XK 120 purchased new by actor Clark Gable.
The car, originally gray with a red interior, was customized for Gable by the renowned Sam and George Barris. Modifications included a "Barris Gold" paint job, shaving the front fenders and rear deck, and installation of a removable canvas top. Recently, the car received a $330,000 ground-up restoration.
To see the show, visitors pay only general museum admission at the door: $8 adults, $7 seniors (62 years and older) and students with ID, $5 children 12 and under. There is no additional charge to attend the car shows. The Vanderbilt Museum is located at 180 Little Neck Road, Centerport, N.Y.
(Note: General admission includes estate-grounds access to the Memorial Wing natural-history and ethnographic-artifact galleries, Nursery Wing, Habitat Room, Hall of Fishes, Egyptian mummy and Stoll Wing animal-habitat dioramas. For a Mansion tour or a Planetarium show, add $6 per ticket.)
The Vanderbilt Museum has honored William K. Vanderbilt II's (1878-1944) automotive legacy by hosting classic-car shows on its grounds for more than three decades.
Mr. Vanderbilt, a pioneer race driver who competed in Europe, brought auto racing to the United States. He inaugurated the famous Vanderbilt Cup Races in 1904. That same year, he set a new land-speed record of 92.3 miles per hour in a Mercedes at a course in Florida. He also spurred the development of the American auto industry and built the prototype for the first toll road, the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway on Long Island.
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