The Big Beauty is finished! On August 15, our 1921 Heine-Velox made its first post-restoration appearance at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. We almost didn't make it, though. The Concours requires that cars be driven into the show; there was a lot of confusion over directions and Tim ended up taking a rather long detour around Pebble Beach. As he finally approached the showgrounds, the left rear brake shoe locked up. Fortunately, Allen Schmidt was behind the car and informed Tim that he had put tools in it. They made the repair and the car made it to the show.
The Heine-Velox was definitely an attention-getter at Pebble. People's faces just lit up when they saw this rare and unusual car, as it was unlike anything else in the Concours. Tim and I handed out hundreds of business cards for the museum and heard stories about Gustav Heine and his cars from some of the attendees. Several old-timers had even seen this Heine-Velox at Harrah's. We even got a card from the folks that own and live in Gustav Heine's former house, and they have a V12 engine block with the crankshaft still in it, half buried in the back yard. We're looking forward to showing our Heine-Velox at the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance next month, along with our 1910 Whiting and 1917 Pierce-Arrow Model 66 A-4.Many thanks to Brian Williams for traveling from the east coast to attend the Concours. Brian worked for and is friends with J. Parker Wickham, the car's previous owner. Brian delivered an impressive file of historical documents and glass plate photos of the car to us--very valuable additions to our library. More pictures to follow as soon as wilma get the camera downloaded.
