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It's hard to believe it's already time to prepare for Monterey the week of August 15th. We'll be there in force with our Aerovault booth in vendor row at Laguna Seca from August 18th thru the 21st. I'm also a judge in an interesting award to be given out during Monterey week called "The Peninsula Classics, Best of the Best Award". A small group of judges will be selecting their 1st, 2nd and 3rd favorite vehicles from the six cars which have won the following Concours' this year: the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, the Cavallino Classic (Palm Beach), the Concours of Elegance (UK), the Goodwood Cartier Style et Luxe Concours d'Elegance, the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering.
Please read on to find out more about what we've been doing!
We hope you enjoy the read below,
Peter (& Gayle) Brock
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"Art of the Car"
Kansas City Concours was a real treat
I really enjoy experiencing car culture around the country. The Kansas City "Art of the Car" Concours was another great event. One highlight of the weekend was Saturday's panel discussion on Ford's "Total Performance" program of 1965. Joining me were two of Shelby's drivers, Bob Bondurant and Allen Grant, along with Shelby Museum director Steve Volk with noted moderator, author and historian Michael Lynch asking the questions. Needless to say it was an interesting afternoon topped by the display of some 200 beautiful cars. Pictured left to right above, Michael Lynch, myself, Bob Bondurant, Pat Bondurant, Steve Volk and Allen Grant.
It was a good weekend for my creations as FOUR of my designs were on the green! First was the 1964 Le Mans GT winning Daytona Coupe, CSX 2299, from the Miller collection in Utah. Second were two Concours perfect, 1963 "split window" Sting Ray coupes. Third were three fine Shelby GT350 Mustangs. Fourth was the rarest of all, the seldom seen Shelby DeTomaso P70 sports racer.
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DeTomaso P70 Damaged In Transit
There's more than one reason I designed the Aerovault
I'm frustrated. The owner of the Shelby DeTomaso P70 owns an Aerovault, which was used to transport this wonderful car to the Amelia Island Concours. When the KC Concours offered to have a professional transport company bring the P70 to their Concours it seemed like a good offer. Turns out it wasn't. Incorrectly tying down the P70 in the transporter damaged its suspension which also caused harm to the body. All repairable but avoidable.
Don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are transporters, but... if you have
an aluminum car or a specialty car like the P70 which has some pretty delicate suspension, you really should take control and be transporting it in an Aerovault. Even if you don't want to tow your car on your own (e.g. get a tow vehicle and tow the Aerovault) you can hire professional drivers that will tow your Aerovault with your precious cargo inside wherever you need it to go.
There is actually more than one Aerovault owner that does this. Check out the details on the Aerovault website here.
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2nd to Last Anniversary Coupe Model Just Released
My 50th Anniversary model series is nearing its end
We've raised the bar with this second to last model in my 50th Anniversary set of models. This model is of CSX2601 as it ran at Monza in Italy in 1965. It was the first race the Daytonas raced in Europe under the stewardship of Alan Mann Racing (so that Shelby could focus on the GT40s for Ford). Even though the American co-driving team of Bob Bondurant and Allen Grant were given orders to bring CSX2601 across the finish line behind the English driver team of Whitmore and Sears in Daytona CSX2602, Bondo and Grant disobeyed team orders and won the race!
As seen here, this set includes:
1) the 1:43rd scale model autographed by BOTH Bondurant and Grant,
2) the archive photo reprint that shows Bondo and Grant posing with their winning Daytona and trophy in 1965, photo autographed by BOTH drivers and
3) the letter I've written, and signed, describing the race and CSX 2601. Here is an excerpt:
"Grant said the (Monza) track was so rough he had to wedge his body sideways into the seat and use his belt and shoulder harness to keep his head from hitting the roof! It was so uneven that Bondurant's vision would go blurry about a third of the way through the banking and the car would jump sideways more than a foot off line on each lap! Grant asked Bondurant how many revs he was pulling on the banking and Bondo' replied: 'I don't know. I can't see.' It took real bravery to compete wheel-to-wheel at those speeds. In qualifying Bondurant turned a 2:57.2 to put the Americans on the GT pole with Whitmore two rows back at 3:03.4."
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Nevada Business Magazine
Aerovault will be cover story in August issue
Speaking of the Aerovault, our Aerovault trailer manufacturing business will be the cover story in the next issue of Nevada Business magazine.
We talk about why we decided to relocate to Nevada, how we made the move, what it took to create the manufacturing process and some of the favorite things we like about being in Henderson.
One of those benefits is that so many of you come to Vegas and visit us!
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Special Offer on George Bartell Artwork
30% off for our newsletter subscribers
I continue to be amazed by my friend George Bartell's art. We met at Art Center in the '50s when I was in the automotive design department and George was in the art department. When I was creating ads for our first Cobra at Shelby's I decided to use illustrative art instead of photos of the cars. I provided Bartell the art direction and he created the art. I then added the titles and text. You may remember the great images George created such as the motorcycle cops stopping a yellow Cobra roadster. It was all George's art.
It's difficult to show the impressive colors and details of these pieces over the internet (or e-mail), but trust me, the more you look at one the more you see. They are amazing. In the '90s, extremely high quality lithographs were made of select pieces of Bartell's art. George passed away in 2013 and at his request we are the exclusive source for the art he had in his personal collection. To help you obtain one of these special pieces, autographed by George himself, we are offering you a limited time special. Below is a SMALL selection of the available pieces. There are also black and white Ford pencil pieces and colored Ford Collages that include a portrait of Henry Ford himself. Go here to view all the available lithographs. When checking out, after you've entered your address info, you will be taken to a screen where you enter "Bartell30" into the Coupon field for 30% off. This special will end at the conclusion of Monterey week, August 21st. Note: quantities are limited so when a piece is gone, it's gone.
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Ford GT40s
24" x 18"
$109.00 $76.30 |
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Mustang GT350s
24" x 18"
$109.00 $76.30 |
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| Corvette History
25" x 17.5"
$99.00 $76.30 |
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| Stunning World Champion Cobra Daytona Coupes
24"x 18"
$109.00 $76.30 |
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| Carroll Shelby Portrait and his Shelby cars
31.5" x 24"
$114.00 $79.80 |
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Cobra Roadsters!
24" x 18"
$109.00 $76.30 |
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Automobile Mag's First Ever Trailer Article!
Another breakthrough milestone for the Aerovault
It happened this Spring when Automobile design columnist, Robert Cumberford, came to visit us in Henderson, NV. Cumberford and I worked at GM Styling during the same era. Cumberford worked with Harley Earl on the first generation Corvette ('53-'62) and I worked with Bill Mitchell on what became the '63 Sting Ray Corvette (which I penned in 1957).
We've always respected each other and that admiration has only grown more fond over the decades. On a Sunday afternoon Bob and I sat down in the Aerovault showroom and shared stories for hours. At some point Bob's attention was drawn to the Aerovault sitting in the background. I gave him a tour from a designer's perspective and he was smitten.
Bob contacted his editors at Automobile magazine, long considered one of the top 3 automotive magazines, to say he had to do a feature on the mind of a designer and how that has translated into the most amazing automotive trailer available. The result is Automobile's wonderful article, published here on June 7, 2016. We hope you enjoy it and feel free to share the news! And share your thoughts with Automobile magazine (you can write comments at the end of the article).
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Preparing for Monterey Week
Free delivery of an Aerovault to Monterey anyone?
We were quite surprised at the attention our Aerovault trailers got at Monterey last year. After the first day at our Aerovault booth at the Laguna Seca track, we compared notes and concluded it was primarily wives and girlfriends that were bringing their significant others into our booth to see the Aerovault. We hadn't thought of how the fine ladies in our lives have had to look at our ugly trailers all these years. It was common to hear: "Look at this honey. I really like this. I think you should get an Aerovault."
We'll of course be taking an Aerovault to Monterey in August to display and transport all our booth gear but we also have the opportunity to take a second tow vehicle and deliver a new Aerovault to anyone who would like to take delivery in Monterey. If this sounds interesting, contact us soon so we can reserve your Aerovault for delivery.
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If you've ever seen Daytona Cobra Coupe CSX2299 from the Larry Miller Collection at an event, you probably have Bill Rhinehart (seen here) to thank for maintaining it and getting it there. Bill passed away July 4th of an apparent heart attack.
Bill was delightful, helpful and unflappable, which you can imagine was quite impressive when handling a car worth double digit millions! If you ever wanted to know what was really happening behind the scenes, all you had to do was ask Bill. In lieu of financial donations, Bill's family has asked that anyone that has a "Bill story" share it with them to honor his memory.
If you have a story about Bill, we encourage you to share it with his family. Go to the link here, and at the bottom left of the screen select Guest Book. When in the Guest Book select "Leave a Condolence" and share your story of Bill.
God Speed dearest Bill. You will be missed by us and many, many more!
To the rest of you... take care and we hope to see you in Monterey!
Peter and Gayle Brock
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