Keels & Wheels eNewsletter

The 10th Anniversary of Keels & Wheels Concours d’Elegance has been described as the best yet. It is a comment that we receive each year, because the selection of the classic cars and boats on display does seem to get better each year. We do work hard to attract the finest examples of cars and boats from around the country to display for your enjoyment.

Thanks to our Sponsors. Without their invaluable support we could not present this event which has grown to national prominence. Constellation Pointe, led by Mitch Mitchell was our Title Sponsor this year. Special thanks to his generosity. I hope each of you will visit our webpage, www.keels-wheels.com and view the entire list of our wonderful sponsors.

Some Highlights of this year:

Sir Stirling Moss was a wonderful Grand Marshal. He and his wife Suzie could not have been more delightful as guests. Thanks to Ken Dougherty, Ron Proler and Continental Airlines for making his visit possible. The idea of getting Stirling Moss to our show was sparked by Ken Dougherty when Ken arranged for Ron to acquire the 1965 Shelby 350GT that was formerly owned and raced by Stirling Moss. “Wouldn't it be great if we could get Stirling here to reunite him with his car” Careful what you ask for. We were able to talk with Stirling and arrange for his trip to Keels & Wheels. What turned out to be a wonderful coincidence was the fact that Sunday, May 1, the second day of our show, was exactly the 50th anniversary of Stirlings win of the Mille Miglia. A stunning victory because the speed record he set 50 years ago has never been broken. It was a special treat for us to help Stirling celebrate that victory. Stirling entertained the crowd with his very humorous story about that particular race and the “pit stop” which added over a minute to the time to finish the race. This Anniversary was also celebrated just recently at the Pebble Beach Concours, with Stirling Moss present along with the Mercedes 300 SLR # 722 that he drove in the race. I was glad to see Pebble Beach follow our lead.

“Gathering of Ghias”. This is the first year that we had a featured Marque. I have always felt that the Ghia design house produced some of the most interesting and beautiful cars. We had 6 incredible examples on display this year. Many of them were one of a kind and were a great addition to our show. There are nice photos of these cars on our web site - www.keels-wheels.com

Best of Show. How the Judges manage to pick a best of show out of so many incredible cars and boats is amazing. I can tell you that a lot of effort goes into the judging and the agonizing over selecting the Best of Class winners as well as the overall Best of Show.

We made a decision this year to have two Best of Show winners for Cars because of a tie in the judging. It turned out that we had an American car and a European car virtually tied for Best of Show. Don Summer, Chairman of the Meadowbrook Concours, suggested we follow the example of his event and have a Best of Show European and Best of Show American. This solution was adopted this year and henceforth. So the winners are:

Best of Show, American Classic, 1933 Duesenberg SJ owned by John O'Quinn of Houston,Texas.

Best of Show, European Classic, 1939 Bugatti, Type 57 C. Known as the “Shah's Bugatti”, owned currently by the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

Best of Show, Classic Boats, 1941 57 foot Elco “Serenity”, classic cruising yacht owned by Jim and Nel Blair of The Woodlands, Texas.

The “Peoples Choice” Best of Show Awards went to:
Favorite Automobile: 1946 Ford Station Wagon Woodie Owned by Ron Stein of Houston, Texas

Favorite Wooden Boat: “Annie” 2005 Owner built 53 foot Cruising Yacht, built and owned by Ron Beberniss of Baycliff, Texas. (16 years in the building process)

Most Historic Race car went to Ron Proler for his 1965 Shelby 350GT formerly owned and raced by Sir Stirling Moss. The Award is presented by Stirling Moss who then jumped in the car and drove it off the stage to the delight of the crowd.

Emeritus Award: presented by Title Sponsor Mitch Mitchell, CEO of Constellation Pointe to Ken Dougherty for his 10 years of invaluable contributions to the growing success of Keels & Wheels.

Emeritus Award: Presented by Sir Stirling Moss to Marsha Taylor, Lakewood Member and Chairman of the Ticket Sales Committee for her years of support and inspiration to so many volunteers who work the show each year.

Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston…was the charity that our show benefited this year. We are proud to report that we were able to present them with a check for $90,000.

Houston Classic Auction… The World Wide Group conducted an extremely successful auction, which took place onsite for the first time. We have entertained the idea of having an auction on site in conjunction with our show but took till now to figure out how to do it. We were fortunate to connect with Rod Egan and John Kruse of the World Wide Group to hold the auction this year. The headlined car was a 1930 Alpha race car that happened to be the first race car acquired by Enzo Ferrari, which gave it an outstanding pedigree. The car sold for $1.1 million. Overall, there were 93 cars sold for a total of $6.5 Million. One of the cars was a Volkswagon Bug, street rod which sold for $20,000. and the proceeds went directly to the Boys & Girls Club. The World Wide group has already signed as it auction headliner for 2006 a very rare Mercedes worth over $2 Million.

Overview.... The weather was perfect again this year. Many of you remember the rain that came last year on Saturday. That was the first time in 9 years that we had rain during our show. We were blessed this year with wonderful weather….which I attest is the result of the “Power of Collective Prayer”. To those of you who joined in that effort…Thanks.

A crowd of roughly 10,000 people attended the show this year. As in past years, they came from all over Texas, the U.S. and Europe. We have enjoyed the attendance of a number of folks from Europe for the last 5-6 years.

Publicity: We enjoyed some terrific coverage from a number of national magazines that wrote some very flattering articles about this years Concours. They include: Car Collector (July), Auto Afficianado (September), Sports Car Market (September), Leisure Connection (June). Try to pick up these magazines on your local news stands. We also enjoyed a large amount of local Houston area coverage from local media.

Travels. The summer found Paul Merrryman and myself traveling to visit other Concours events. Paul went to the Lake Tahoe Concours in August where the Best of Show was won by a Lakewood member, Mike Seigel, with his 1939 Chris Craft. Paul also attended the International Antique & Classic Boat show and Annual Meeting at Lake of the Ozarks in September. I went to the Meadowbrook Concours in early August for their 27th Annual. I was asked to be a Judge this year, which I enjoyed very much. They use French Style Judging, which is very different from our point oriented judging system. Theirs is a wonderful and very successful event, led by Chairman Don Sommer and Lolly Bezy, Executive Director.

At the Pebble Beach Concours, late August, it was their 55th Annual and proved once again why they are the best in the world. The cars were simply unbelievable and the overall Best of Show was won by our own, Alfredo Brener with the 1937 Delage Aero Coupe, owned in partnership with Sam and Emily Mann. As you know, the Pebble Beach event is ultra sophisticated and considered by some as stuffy. I thought the best representation of this was exemplified when the announcer called the Best of Class for their “Hot Rod” Class. When the highly modified, dropped and chopped 1936 Ford drove across the stage to receive the award… the announcer referred to it as “Extremely re-proportioned”. What a hoot!

THANK YOU: There are so many people to thank for making Keels & Wheels happen this year and every year. *Thanks to our Title Sponsor, Constellation Pointe and all the other Sponsors for your critical support. *Thanks to the car and boat owners who come from all over the country and work so hard to maintain their special treasures and go to significant expense to transport and display at our show, for our appreciation and pleasure. *Thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who work the show under the direction of Vice Chairman, Ron Stein. *Thanks to Vice Chairman, Ron Stein for recruiting those volunteers. *Thanks to Vice Chairman, Paul Merryman who ensures that our harbor is filled with beautiful wooden boats. *Thanks to Ken and Kathy Dougherty for helping obtain so many special automobiles for the show each year. *Thanks to the car and boat Judges who lend their expertise and time to judge the beautiful cars and boats. *Thanks to the South West Chapter of the Antique & Classic Boat Society, led by President Ed Ueckert, for making the marine half of our show such a success. *Thanks to the LYC Concours Corp. Board, for your advice and guidance throughout the year. *Thanks to the World Wide Group for enhancing our show with such a well-organized and successful auction. *And… special thanks to all of you who bought a ticket and came to the show. I hope you all will accept the heartfelt thanks and plan to join us next year. Please spread the word among your friends and associates that our show gets better each year. Next year, we will present the 11th Annual Keels & Wheels, May 6-7, 2006. I promise that the 11th Annual will be the best show yet. I hope you will be there.

COMMENTS: We constantly strive to make the show better organized and attractive. We invite your comments about our show. If you have ideas as to how we can make it better… what we should do, that we don't… what we should stop doing… what can we do better… we would love to hear from you.

Bob Fuller, Concours Chairman
LYC Concours Corp. - P.O. Box 156 - Seabrook, TX 77586
www.keels-wheels.com

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