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2005 Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance
By: Nathan Leach-Proffer
Photos by the author
August 16, 2005

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As the sun comes up over the horizon, cars start to roll down a small tree lined road to register. The 27th annual Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance is about to open to the public. This was the first year that the Concorso d'Italia was held on the same day as Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance, and it made for a great day to enjoy a wide variety of automobiles. The main display held a selection of "Magnificent cars of the Brass Era" along with displays showing off the best of automobiles pre 1905 and a circle of eight rare Chrysler hemi-powered convertibles.

Concorso d'Italia

This is the 2nd year that the Concorso d'Italia took place on the grounds of Meadow Brook Hall on the campus of Oakland University. Many great Italian cars were in attendance including two Ferrari Enzo's next to two F40's, a Lamborghini Miura and many beautiful classic Ferraris. The Ferraris included two California Spyders, one a 1961 and the other a 1963. While each of these were stunning examples, neither won best in show. That honor went to a gorgeous 1952 Ferrari 212/225 Barchetta owned by the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

Concours d'Elegance

Like years past, The Concours d'Elegance brought out some of the most elegant and rare cars in the world. This year the Brass cars were the highlight from makers like, Oldsmobile, Pungs-Finch, Columbia and, Thomas Flyer. One of the cars even had it own musical horns that could be played by the driver, much to the delight of everyone watching. This year visitors were also giving a chance to truly see how far the automobile has come with a unique display of vehicles made over 100 years ago. Each vehicle there had to be driven in order to be judged and included such companies as Stanley, Packard, R.E.O., Maxwell, and Glide.

This year the Concours judges decided to present two best of show awards, one for an American made car and one for a foreign produced automobile. The American made best of show went to a black 1929 Duesenberg J LeBaron Dual Cowl Phaeton owned by Terence E. Adderley. For the 2nd time in two years straight, Arturo and Deborah Keller took home the best in show, this time for foreign car. Last year a 1930 Mercedes Benz SS sports roadster won the award, and this year it was a 1929 Mercedes Benz SSK Murphy Roadster that took the prize.

With such a wide variety of automobiles and activities, this year's Meadow Brook Concours rounded off an excellent series of shows preceding the finale at Pebble Beach in just a few weeks. This year the organizers successfully merged two shows that are already great in their own right into a spectacular event that allowed you to fully immerse yourself into and enjoy all that the automobile has to offer.