The fairway of a golf course on a Saturday morning is not where you normally park your classic cars. However, on July 20th the fairway of the second hole of Schenley Park Golf Course in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh was the show site of over 40 vintage and classic Jaguars. The 20th Vintage Grand Prix was also the location for the Jaguar Club of Pittsburgh's 6th annual Concours d'Elegance.

This year's field included cars entered from Indiana, Ontario, Canada, Florida and Connecticut. Sonja and Ron Halbauer from Lawrenceburg, IN brought out their 1936 Birch Gray SS1 Tourer to Pittsburgh for the first time. This excellently prepared Jaguar was a real crowd pleaser. Dan Meyers and I were very fortunate to have Ron take us for a ride. I couldn't believe how low we sat in the car or how long the bonnet looked from the front seat. (Thanks again Ron.) John Milne of Toronto had his mechanic perform a fast brake job on his 340 that would turn a Formula 1 pit crew green with envy.

As a contrast to the Classic Jaguars, Stuart Schwartz of A&L Motor Sales of Monroeville supplied 3 future Classics, an X-Type, an S-Type and my personal favorite, an XK-R. All three cars were triple black with the "R" option, sporting plenty of horsepower. (The S-Type has 390.) Mr. Schwartz would be happy to sell you one or all three of these beautiful Jaguars, but if you buy the XK-R, I would like a ride. A&L Motors generously supported this year's Concours which made it possible for us to commission a special glass trophy. George and April of "Etched in Glass" of Gibsonia were very helpful and patient while the design for this year's award was being created.

We had a very large contingent from Delaware Valley. No less than six cars made the trip from the Philadelphia area as a tribute to the late Mr. Dave Milling who had raced his SS-100 in the PVGP for many years. His passing marks an end of seeing his number 858 black Jaguar lean into the Schenley Park turns.

Kurt Rappold, president of the Delaware Valley Club (DVC), showed his preservation class white 1967 E-Type. Kurt had two grandsons, on wheels,as his detailing crew. Ms. Ann Perry, also of DVC, competed in class D-8 with her Antelope colored 1985 XJS coupe. Charles Olson gave the chief judge a run for his money in class C-12. Mr. Olson's 1987 Tungsten XJ-6 was a great addition to the show field.

Vito Gatto, a past participant of the JCOP Concours and a DVC member again showed his 1938 maroon SS-100. This car is a perennial crowd favorite. The grouping of the SS-100, the SS-1 tourer and the Mark IV made for quite a trio of Coventry Cats.

With such a high level of beautifully prepared cars, one would expect some high scores, which was the case for this year's show. Glenn Henson's (Jaguar Association of Central Ohio) 1971 Series 3 red E-Type 2+2, Vito Gatto's (Delaware Valley) 1938 SS-100 and our club's Dr. Terry Smith's 1967 Series 1 dark blue OTS E-Type all received perfect 100 points for their efforts. This is Terry's second 100 point score for his car in only its first year since its complete restoration.

Other very high scores were earned by Linda and Michael Fontana (JCOP) 1986 red XJS, Carol and Paul Neidert (JCO) 1966 red Series 1 E-Type coupe, Paul and Jan-Gee McCollam (JCSNE) of Glastonbury, CT alloyed bodied, black XK120 OTS (in the background) and Bob Gelfand (JCOP) cream XK140 OTS . In the driven division, some other high scores included Jim and Helen Phillips (Jaguar Association of Greater Buffalo) 1965 blue Mark 10 , Janet Frisch (JCOP's First Lady) 1993 red XJS and Greg Sopiak 1968 black Series 2 OTS E-Type. Greg, who showed in his first Concours, may have to give his father, John, a few pointers before next year's show. One C15 entrant came from as far as South Florida, Russell Glace with his 1957 XK140 MC FHC vintage racer (see sidebar).

The sky on Saturday was clear, blue and beautiful, a vast contrast to the weather on Friday. Dan and I were sitting under an umbrella under his tent waiting for the work crew to put up our main tent. I was sure glad our show was not on Friday.

Help for this year's show came from several places. The registration was expertly handled again by Terry and Dan Meyers. Trailer parking and traffic directing was the job of Don Johnson, Gary Kincel and Pete Galinowski. We imported our scorekeepers from Ohio, Jo Keller and Carol Neidert. Rumor has it that the club was so short of pencils that the ladies had to share one. Our judging crew also had a national flavor. Rick Hartwell from South Florida, Ron Halbauer from Indiana, George Keller, our old friend from Columbus, OH and Jim Baker also from the central Ohio club. Our own JCOP judges included Jack Terrick, Rich Aronson, Dave Hershey, Don Johnson, Gary Kincel and Dan Meyers. The Concours committee thanks Mike Connolly, PVGP President and Race Director, Hank Kessler, PVGP Vice President and Event Co-chairman and Jamie Mauck, of Schenley Park Golf Course. All of these individuals made sure we had everything we needed to have a successful show including a great show site, trailer parking, water to clean up our cars and helpful suggestions.

This year the Concours' judges were asked to perform an additional task. Normally the judges are expected to critically evaluate cars based on a set of rules accumulated by Jaguar Clubs of North America. For the "Judges Choice" trophy, the judges threw out the rule book and voted on their personal favorite Jaguar based on whatever criteria they wanted, whether it be the shape, color, condition or uniqueness. The winner of the "Judges Choice" was Gary Kincel for his 1948 Mark IV Saloon. Congratulations to Gary and everyone who attended the sixth annual Concours d'Elegance. The participants, the spectators, the PVGP and the PVGP charities were all winners in this year's event.

Judges, from the left: local JCOP judges Gary Kincel and Bryan Williams,
out of towners Georges Keller (Ohio), Rick Hartwell (south Florida) and Glenn Henson (Ohio)

Ben Breen, Series 3 E-type OTS

Rich Aronson 1951 XK120 OTS