Richard Fritz, VP BCCC…
Member of BCCMC, BCCWNC,
GSBCC, SAOCA, and TEAE
Fall arrived just in time for the British Car Club of Western North Carolina’s 24th Annual Autumn in the Mountains car show; however, no one told Mother Nature that it was supposed to be ‘autumn cool’ and ‘autumn comfortable’ on the show field.
The morning started out to be slightly overcast with a heavy layer of mountain mist blanketing the rolling hills of Mills River, NC. But that didn’t last long. Once the sun burned off the mist, temperatures rose like the hot water in grandmas’ tea kettle on the old wood stove. It was much warmer than expected for the first day of Autumn, but it was still a beautiful day for a car show.
The show field was filling up fast. When I arrived at 8:30 with Joel Martin, Patricia Tocco, and Eric Gibeaut the traffic coming in was getting intense. The display lanes were loaded with all sorts of cars and the volunteer parking crew was running their tails off to get everyone situated.
My goal was to be parked on the field by 9:00 and that goal was achieved. Cars kept rolling in for the next two hours. I don’t know what the total number of vehicles in attendance for the day was, but I heard 261 people were registered.
Being a bit older this year and somewhat less agile, I decided to take a new approach to this year’s AITM story. As I slowly walked the car lanes, I made an executive decision to only post photos of BLUE CARS from the over-whelming number of cars on display. Since BCCWNC chooses to group cars my marque and European origin with no model sub-categorization, it makes classification easier for them but makes voting in the mish-mash challenging for the registrants. So let’s do this alphabetically starting with the Aston Martin. Here is Bruce Miller’s 1964 DB5 from Charlotte, NC, beautifully detailed and waiting for Mr. Bond to arrive.
A couple of BLUE Austin Healey’s represented their marque in classical style. The first, a monochromatic blue 1967 A-H 3000 Mk III was owned by Grady Wilson from Asheville, NC. The 2nd was a two-toned blue over white 1959 A-H 100/6 owned by John Grenier from Advance, NC.
The next blue car was a 2020 Bentley Continental GT owned by Kevin Mann from Mooresville, NC. This is what I call a luxury car with attitude. And not to be out-attituded was a Teutonic favorite… the 1972 BMW 2002 owned by Carlos Everett from Saluda, NC.
A blue ’71 Lotus Europa owned by Ned Gallaher from Landrum, SC presented very well on the field and was certainly an “eye catcher” with the ladies. As I strolled the car lanes, the MG’s came into view… The 1st blue MG I saw was a 1963 B-type owned by Susan Beck from Charleston, SC looking as it did 60 years ago when it came off the showroom floor. The 2nd blue MG in the car lane was a ’64 B-type owned by Martin Shane from Seneca, SC looking very British with those beautiful chrome wire wheels. Of course, good looking blue cars aren’t always British… how about this 1961 356-B Porsche owned by John Drews out of Flat Rock, NC. A beautiful example of the classic ‘bathtub’ Porsche. A rare and appreciated treat.
There were several Mini Cooper types entered in the show ranging from the original 10” wheelers to the UK produced BMW Minis of the day. All were interesting models, but the blue Minis made me smile, especially Neal Weinmann’s 1978 Leyland Mini from Hendersonville, NC. It is what I would call a “Diamond in the Rough,” plenty of character and not too far from being a show stopper. And then there was the 1998 Rover Mini owned by Phil Profili from Horse Shoe, NC with flared fenders and plenty of lumens on the front end.
Then came the Triumphs with a large representation of models from Spitfires to TR-8’s, but the blue ones set the tone for the cars of this article. The first Triumph I saw was a 1957 TR-3 looking pretty original except for the interesting spotlight on the roof. It was owned by Jose Bartute from Hendersonville, NC. The next one was a well preserved 1962 TR-3B owned by Patrick Pritchett all the way from Damascus, VA. Andy Burrell from Hendersonville, NC showed up with his 1963 TR 4, and a good looking ‘4’ it was, standing proud on its Panasport wheels. But not to be out done was Ralph Rayle from Hendersonville with his ’64 TR 4 standing just as tall on his chrome wires. All great cars but classified as Triumph ‘Other,’ like they were the red-headed step children of British Leyland.
Triumph TR-6 for some reason was singled out in their own class. Here are the blue TR 6’s: A 1972 TR 6 owned by Nino Minaudo from Black Mountain, NC, and a 1976 TR 6 owned by Craig Dozois from Pinehurst, NC. Both very nice and neither had those ugly rubber barrier busters.
As I was closing in on the bottom of the alphabet and wondering if my legs would get me back to my chair, I found myself at the ‘V’s. Here is a blue Volkswagen Variant Squareback from 1967 owned by Lori from Asheville. I drove one of these commuting to college in the 60’s. It did get me where I need to be. And the last of the blue cars spotted as my sciatic nerve acted up was a 1957 Volvo 445 Duett owned by Noel Vincent from Hendersonville, NC. I think this was my favorite blue car of the day. It had the right patina and personal interest for me. Quirky enough but thoroughly unique, and something I’ve never seen before.
I have been a Sunbeam guy all my adult life, so I reserved commenting on the eight Sunbeams present at AITM until now, and just for TEAE. There were 2 Alpines (one a V8) and 6 Tigers gracing the show field. R Fritz was 1st in Class with his ’63 Alpine GT, and Joel Martin won 2nd place with his ’66 Tiger.
This was my second year at Autumn in the Mountains, and it was a blast. Now that I know the show’s layout and operational process, it was easier to maneuver. I must admit that I still get a bit twitchy with no model breakdown within the classes, because it makes choosing one car per class difficult; however, all the cars represented their marques well, and their owners were never at a loss for words to describe them.
Autumn in the Mountains is a show well worth making the 250 mile drive from my home to attend. I likely will return in 2025 as long as my car and I are capable. And that brings me to the end of the Blue Car Show story from the Blue Mountains of North Carolina for this year. I hope I was able to illustrate why I tailored the story to only blue cars. If all things remain the same for this show next year, I’ll have to highlight a different color.