|
 FLINT, Mich. -- Attending the annual September auto show in Flint's Cultural Center this year was an exercise in falling in love with the past.
The show, founded in 1995 by Robert Sovis and other local enthusiasts, is a fund raiser for the Sloan Museum. This year organizers called for cars at least half a century old. They attracted a record 156 vehicles from the '20s and '30s up to finned beauties from the mid-'50s like the lavender 1957 Pontiac owned by Ken Bueche of Flushing. Some of the former were celebrating their 75th anniversaries; the gaudy ones, weighed down by chrome and nostalgia, were marking their 50th birthdays. A 1930 Marquette and a 1933 Hudson Terraplane shared the grassy park with Flint's own: lots of Buicks and Chevrolets. Gene Tacey of Essexville parked his 1925 Rickenbacker near the front of the show. Tacey said his '25 may be the only Rickenbacker still residing in Michigan. There had been three a few years back, he said. but he thought the others had moved away. "Rickenbacker, the World War I pilot, built these cars in Detroit between 1922 and 1927," Tacey said. "The company produced everything it needed for the cars. Had it bought from suppliers instead of going in-house, it might have survived a few more years." Tacey said he has owned his original sedan around 30 years. It cost $1,595 new -- more than a Ford and but considerably less than a Packard -- and was marketed as a "performance" car. The Rickenbacker was positioned near an unusual 1931 De Vaux belonging to Howard Reinke of Auburn, Mich. This car had a production run lasting only a few years beginning with 1931. Vehicles were built in Grand Rapids in a facility leased from Hayes Body Corporation, according to the late automotive historian Beverly Rae Kimes. Another plant was planned for Oakland, Cal., the home state of Norman de Vaux, a longtime colleague of William Durant. New, well-equipped vehicles ranged in price from $595 to $795, Kimes wrote. Long story short: the company was bought by Continental Motors Corporation in 1932 but by 1935 its efforts also failed. Late in the afternoon of the September 16 show, "birthday" cars were briefly described as they paraded in review past visitors. Waiting patiently in the line of '50s cars was the better-than-new 1947 Chevrolet convertible that Robert Sovis and his family were donating to the Sloan Museum. Inside were Sovis's six adult children, who likely will be carrying on the automotive heritage traditions begun by their father Robert.
|
