Club Clips: November 28, 2019 Edition
AACA magazine has high standards, broad appeal If you wonder what element brings perhaps the most growth to a car club, consider the Antique Automobile Club of America. Its publication,…
AACA magazine has high standards, broad appeal
If you wonder what element brings perhaps the most growth to a car club, consider the Antique Automobile Club of America. Its publication, Antique Automobile (www.AACA.org), for September-October 2019 clearly showed the wide diversity of the club and its generally inclusive nature. The editor of the quality, 100-page magazine is West Peterson.
The cover features a 1925 Rolls-Royce Piccadilly roadster. The eight-page article, with text by Guy Lewis and photos by the editor, offers a short walk through early RR history, including formation, early production and advances leading to 1925, including a stint with the American Rolls-Royce of Springfield, Mass. The color pictures are lavish. The roadster is seen settled amid controlled backdrops on a vintage estate.
This Piccadilly is one of 79 on the Silver Ghost chassis. Thanks to determined research and good file information, RR owners often discover their car’s provenance.This one, owned by Lewis, was a barn find in need of extensive work to bring it to ultra-show status. At the time of purchase, it had not been confirmed that the car originally was purchased by Howard Hughes. That fact must have made Lewis smile when it was verified.
Twenty-one color pictures plus a center spread on the car make the article and issue a delight for pre-war collectors. Succeeding articles offer the same quality treatment on a 1958 Chevrolet, then a 1965 Ford Mustang, followed by the 1963 Foyt/Watson Spring Car, 1970 Mercedes-Benz 6.3 SEL, regional news covering cars of various vintages, and then a surprise.
A four-page article by Walt Gosden is titled, “Stutz in New York.” He covers the displaying of Stutz autos at swanky auto showsand emphasizes the showrooms and custom body salon. The brand made its first appearance at the 1926 New York Salon, a high-end event for ultra fancy, expensive cars. Stutz continued to exhibit at the annual events until the last was held in 1931. Gosden traces the custom body choices as exemplified via 10 renditions in color.
The AACA is a venerable heavyweight among collector car clubs when it comes to sheer number of members (in the tens of thousands) and its active regions, plus the huge and historic annual Hershey Fall Meet in Pennsylvania. The AACA truly is a club for all seasons and for just about all types of car collectors, even those still searching for the car of their dreams.
Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA)
501 W. Governor Road
Hershey, PA 17033
717-534-1910
www.aaca.org
