An array of antiques, classics and muscle cars returned to Chattanooga Sunday as part of the annual Chattanooga Motorcar Festival occurring every year since 2011.
The three-day event, which welcomes luminaries from the collector car and racing world featured various events and activities but culminated in the Concours d’Elegance Sunday afternoon in the city’s West Village. The show featured more than 100 vehicles ranging from Bentleys, Duesenbergs and Pierce Arrows to Ferraris, Porsches and Jaguars.
Savoy Automobile Museum Director of Development Tom Shinall was on hand with a selection of 1950s vehicles on display from the museum located in Cartersville, Georgia.
“This is our fourth year being a part of the Motorcar Festival here in Chattanooga,” he said. “In reality, this is kind of like our backyard. We are 60 miles south right down I-75 and are actually located halfway between Chattanooga and Atlanta.”
Shinall said the museum, which officially opened its doors in December 2001, became involved with the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival early on in its existence.
“Our presence has grown every year, the event continues to grow and it is just one of the highlights,” he said. “We thoroughly love coming up here and being a part of it.”
Shinall said that last year the museum brought what they consider to be some highlights from its collection, but there was no significant theme. This year, they focused on “orphan cars” of the 1950s. The term is used to describe a car that was manufactured by an automobile company that has gone out of business.
“We have a Nash, we have a Packard, we have got a Frazer and a Studebaker, so all cars from the early to mid-1950s that were once in production and annually produced models that then became orphans when manufacturing was shut down,” Shinall said.
Competing in the pre-1915 steam and brass automobile class, Bill Heller was showing a 1916 Baker Electric 60/98S Broughman for his friend who owns the car.
“This is a 1916 car that my friend bought from the original owner in 1980, so this is a two owner car,” Heller said. “The family that bought it in 1916 they sent it back to the factory in 1928 to have it modernized. They lowered the roof line by four inches, they put bumpers on and did some other things too and then during the depression they parked it and didn’t use it much.”
However, that would change after the outbreak of World War II and the gas rationing that came along with the war effort.
“In 1942 they sent the original batteries to a battery company in Connecticut that made batteries for submarines and they made brand new batteries that looked like the old batteries,” he said. “So all during World War II they drove this car when their neighbors couldn’t get gas because of the gas rationing.”
The car then underwent a five-year restoration by its current owner in 2000.
“This is our first time to Chattanooga,” he said. “I was excited to come to this show because it is in a street. Most of the Concours shows we go to are at golf courses and things like that, so having it on city streets is kind of cool.”
