During the Summer, I spend my weekends on the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York. This past weekend, I had been kicking around the idea of staying home to get things done, but at the last minute, I just couldn’t let one of the few weekends when the Summer house is open slip by, so I went… I worked hard last week to get ahead on some projects, and I’ll show you photos of that work next.
When I called Janie and said I was coming, she said that in that case, I would probably want to check out a British car show at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY on Saturday morning. So on Saturday, we got up early and all headed down to Clayton for a few hours, and the show was small, but did not dissapoint! I think the most beautiful part of it was the venue itself – on the banks of the St. Lawrence River on a PERFECT Summer day!
Take a look, and Enjoy!
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- The ad in the paper looks promising – and VERY fancy for the North Country!
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- The Antique and Clasic Boat Society National Headquarters in Clayton, NY was just 1/2 a block from the Antque Boat Museum, where the car show was being hosted.
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- Everything about this town is antique – check out the local NAPA!!!
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- Coming into the show, I could see that this was no average local car show!
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- This Ferrari was more reminiscent of Scottsdale, AZ than Clayton, NY!!
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- And an actual 300SL!?! Wow… – OK, I’m impressed!
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- The radical angle of the tall Mercedes 6-cylinder engine is always startling – but remember, these cars are dry sumped from the factory!
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- And right next to it, the modern equivalent in an AMG.
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- A late model Ferrari, but with VERY pleasing lines!
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- I overheard the owner of this Mini Cooper wagon say, “I had to buy this as soon as I saw it because it was just so damn ugly!”
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- She definitely has her own style!
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- Probably upgraged from the 1098 cc to a 1275 cc in this trim, but still SMALL!
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- Once out onto the main show field of the boat museum grounds, the weather, and the color, was PERFECT – starting with this beautiful Maserati!
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- To me, this car SCREAMS Pinin Farina design, but I don’t actually know if that is true or not… But you’ll rarely see a 4-seater that looks THIS good!
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- And the artistry continued under the hood…
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- A more modern Maserati just across the walkway.
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- That’s pretty mean looking!
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- A few vintage racing cars parked in front of “La Duchesse” – a 106-foot houseboat – custom built in 1903!
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- Alfa.
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- Datsun…
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- …with a nod to the nautical…
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- …and modern power.
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- From water skis to snow skis, several of the car owners were having fun today!
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- Vintage cars of all shapes and sizes were present – even a few from France!
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- Can you guess what this is?…
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- I know – too easy… – Sunbeam Tiger!
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- But you probably don’t know what THIS is!
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- I didn’t! – it’s a late-model TVR…
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- …and it was RADICAL!
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- This car caught my eye next…
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- …but something didn’t seem quite right…
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- …and well before I made it this close, I had determined that it was in fact, a replica. But from 50 feet away, she played it off pretty well!
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- Aston Martin.
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- What a glorious morning it was!
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- This is an original Jaguar Saloon, but has been modified into a drop-head.
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- And I have to tell you, it was very well done!
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- And obviously ready for some very high-brow cruising!
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- Hmmmm… What’s this over here?…
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- What? I found myself confused, thinking, “Is this even real?…” I don’t recall ever seeing a DB4 roadster?… Is this another conversion?
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- NO! It’s actually a rare factory drop-head!
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- The color was a little wild…
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- Look at the car, but LOOK at the River! Now you know why I drive so far up there – the St. Lawrence River is FABULOUS!
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- Back under the bonnet of the DB4.
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- The DB4 cockpit.
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- DB4 rear.
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- Now you know where “DB” comes from…
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- Another shot of the DB4.
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- DB4 rear.
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- Aston Martin was well represented today!
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- I spent alot of time in (and under) one of these in high school!
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- A TR-3 gives new meaning to the term “Open car”…
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- Next was the only E-Type present – a well-restored and cared-for Series 2 OTS.
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- This British racing Green had a slight hint of blue to it, and it MAY have been the same 1985 XJ-6 BRG that my ’63 OTS was in high school. Standing there, I am pretty sure I recognized it as “my” color…
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- The body and paint work was excellent.
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- The car presented well from all angles.
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- And even though it was a Series 2, it started to bring back the memories…
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- Especially from this ANGLE – a common sight for my E-Type back then!
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- Like many restored Series 2 E-Types, this car had been upgraded with triple SU’s.
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- a 1969 E-Type Roadster on a beautiful day by the water…
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- This Mark 2 also was quite nice…
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- And the combination of BRG with the suede green leather was classic. Despite the rules, this owner brought their pet…
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- I’m not a Mark 2 guy, but you cannot deny the beauty of this car!
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- Next was this XK140MC Fixed-Head Coupe.
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- We had a VERY tired XK150 FHC parked outside the shop almost the whole time I was there in high-school and college – and it was also white with a red leather interior, and so I of course thought of going out in the Winter and messing around with that whenever the owner had a little money for us to work on it…
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- A little tighter than an E-Type under the bonnet!
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- Another beautiful – and colorful – leather interior.
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- I know it LOOKS comfortable, but almost all XK owners complain that they are most certainly NOT!
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- William Lyons was always of the mindset that you “win on Sunday, sell on Monday…”, and he wasted no time boasting of the XK’s success at LeMans! I have always thought that this badge, and the later XK-150 badge that lists FOUR years, is just SUPER COOL!
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- Healeys!
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- I always liked these, but never had one… but I guess I don’t have a complaint coming since I always had E-Types instead!
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- One day while playing hooky from school in 11th grade, I drove down toward the Chesapeake Bay for the day, and came a cross a literal PILE of about 4 Austin Healey 3000’s on the side of the road, and have always wondered, “what if…”
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- The cars I saw that day were TOTAL basket cases – some broken in half. And in that state, I could see that the fenders were aluminum while the bodies were steel. That BLEW MY MIND at the time… Weird – this is the kind of stuff I used to do instead of going to school, but I guess I kind of WAS going to school when you look at where I ended up!
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- Pretty sure you’ll find the typical little A-H jump seats back here under this half-open tonneau cover.
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- Damn, this looks like FUN!
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- A few MORE A-H 3000’s, flanked by an Aston Martin and a Morgan. I don’t know Morgan models – only that they all have “PLUS” and “FOUR” in them – multiple times…
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- Austin Healey 3000.
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- A modern XK-R convertible.
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- Another shot – what a location!
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- Pretty sure this was a Buick, probably about a ’27-’28…
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- A mid-50’s Prosche 356 coupe.
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- Lotus Europa. One of these came into the shop when I was a kid (as the local jag shop, we ended up with alot of other “weird” stuff…) – it was orange. I thought it was the weirdest looking car I ever saw. I only drove it around the shop, which is probably why I never appreciated it – I’ll bet it would have handled like it was on rails!
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- Lotus Europa. I need to read up on these…
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- Oh, THIS looks familiar! This is a 1962 Chevrolet Bel-Air 2-door hardtop “bubble top” – with a 409 – this is THE CAR that the song “409” is about.
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- I had a 1963 Chevrolet Impala 2-door hardtop in high school – same crazy color, with the same light blue vinyl interior. But alas, mine had a 300 cid straight 6 with a 3-speed manual transmission with a column shifter – “3 on the tree” – I loved all old cars back then, and still do, but in 1989, I was the ONLY person who liked it… It was my second car for when the Jag was not running – which was alot. So in 1989, as a Senior, I was driving a ’63 XKE and a ’63 Impala. Back then, that made me “weird”…
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- The 409 engine – talk about WEIRD – these things have no combustion chamber in the heads, and instead have the top deck of the block cut at an angle that is NOT 90-degrees to the crank line to make up for that. They were a bored and stroked old Chevy truck motor, and very inefficient, but the shear size made up for that, and were the beginnings of the American “Big Block” era of the late 60’s.
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- Mid 60’s Ford Mustangs!
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- And a Barracuda!
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- And a Stingray! What a great mix this little show had!
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- This is another Stingray with a small block – a ’63, before the big blocks came out in ’65 with the 396’s.
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- This one is the infamous 1963-only “split-window coupe” – which they changed to a one-piece rear window in 1964 because you couldn’t see out of the rear-view mirror!
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- We also wandered around the displays within the museum itself, and I thought I’d throw in some of the better photos of a few choice antique boats. If you like these, check out the blog from the Antique Boat show itself last Summer!
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- These antique runabouts are so long that it’s tough to get the whole boat in the frame!
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- A restored dual-ignition Scripps V-12 Marine engine – and it was BIG!
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- This building was dressed out as a vintage boat show, with signs near each boat as if they were brand new and available for sale.
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- A vintage Jet Ski…
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- This 1935 Gar Wood Speedster has been at the museum for a while now, and has always been one of my favorites boats there.
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- This was part of a special temporary display on collapsible canoes – very neat!
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- Two vintage collapsibles – the green one came apart down the entire keel, and the red one came apart into 4 pieces like it was sawed up for scrap!
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- This “folding boat” was neatly nestled onto the running boards and fenders of this vintage Ford phaeton from it’s own era…
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- After a couple of hours of vintage cars, boats, and even arts and crafts for the kids, we had a lunch of wood-fired pizza and micro-brewed beers on the deck at the “Wooden Boat Brewery” – what a GREAT view of a GREAT museum – I HIGHLY recommend a visit here if you can appreciate the craftsmanship of these wooden runabouts. If you do come, I’d do it for the annual boat show itself in early August – and with a little luck, it will be another PERFECT river day like this!
