Monmouth County Concours d'Elegance

Raises Over $100,000 For Charity

October 9 , 2008 - Article and Photos © Len Rapoport

On Saturday September 20, 2008 a group of classic car enthusiasts hosted thousands of anxious car enthusiasts to a very rare opportunity to view more than 135 antique automobiles — all manufactured between 1900 and 1959.

Organizer Sonny Schwartz of Marlboro an antique car enthusiast himself has a personal collection of over 30 restored classic cars and only started his collection 6 years, wow. His classics now reside in a specially built steel heated facility on his 48 acre Marlboro, exotic and domestic, private animal farm.

Prize Winning 1949 Cadillac Custom, Owned by Fred and Lillian DiGiovanni, Englishtown, NJ

The show included many of his own vintage cars including a V-16 Cadillacs, Delages, a 1928 Red Packard Custom-Eight Sport Phaeton and a 1961 Pininfarina Corvette. Sonny is a past award-winner in the famed Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Mr. Schwartz decided that Monmouth County would be a wonderful location for another exclusive show and this inspired him to create the first Monmouth County Concours d'Elegance show. This shows entires were valued at over $1.7 million and many came from collectors from Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties.

Schwartz said "the concourses, which draw crowds of thousands in states including California, Florida and parts of the Midwest, are a rarity here in New Jersey."

"Concourses differ from "cruises" because entrants must meet high standards of excellence in areas ranging from aesthetics to the year of manufacture," Schwartz said.

Schwartz, retired president of the former New York-based Kinney Parking Systems, said the show will celebrate the years "when cars were icons." "These cars were all examples of American art," he said. "We did this in effect to look at the romance America has with the automobile. Everybody somehow fell in love with a car at some point in his life. "It's nostalgic, it's interesting, and it's a great way to see what America's all about".

The Car-Toon Truck As Seen In Ripley's Believe It Or Not

Cartoon Truck - Owned, Restored and Painted by Robert Luczun

One of the show highlights was a wonderfully restored and decorated 1928 Ford model AR that was painstakingly restored and hand painted by former high school college and art school teacher. Robert told us that it took over 2,000 hours to do the basic restoration and painting, but didn't include the hundreds of hours of research.

He visited the ComicCon comic book show in New York one day and met many of the artists who's art he has reproduced on the car. They were happy to see their work imortalized in this way and even signed cards that are now imbedded on the cars rear bed. On the back of the car you can see a custom made trailer which has been made out of parts from a number of classic cars. This trailer took an additional 800 hours to produce. He used both traditional brush and air brush.

This car has now been featured in the latest edition of Ripley's Believe It Or Not, so pick up a copy. Robert told me he and his truck make special appearances at auto shows, special events and parties. You can contact him directly at: cartoontruck@optonline.net and tell him you heard about him hear.

Monmouth County Concours d'Elegance

Please enjoy our slide show of this event right here.

Over $100,000 was raised for a local charity Embrace Kids Foundation a nonprofit organization that provides counseling, social services, educational programs, holiday and inspirational events and emergency financial assistance for families with children suffering from cancer or blood diseases such as sickle cell anemia.

Web based publications need media access too. Join IPA today and gain the access you need to gather rich content for your web site. Why not take a tour of our site and sign up now.

Gain valuable web traffic by publishing your work and links on our site. Membership has its benefits and we can help promote your site too