Published: February 13, 2019, 6:40 AM
Updated: October 11, 2021, 10:20 AM
ICONS: Art and the Automobile at 2019 CIAS
The fifth annual Art and the Automobile classic car exhibit at the 2019 Canadian International Auto Show, curated by the Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance, combines classic car and cultural icons.
(Photos by Jeremy Malloy and Gerry Malloy)
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ICONS: Art and the Automobile
Art and the Automobile, featuring 15 iconic classic cars in a gallery-like setting, can be found at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto, on the 700 level of the South MTTC, from February 15 through 24, 2019.
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ICONS: Wide range of vehicles
There is a wide range of iconic vehicles to see in this spectacular collection, beginning with this Canadian-built 1915 Ford Model T from the Canadian Automotive Museum in Oshawa, Ontario.
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ICONS: 1973 Porsche 911 RSR
While the Model T is the oldest vehicle in the exhibit, the newest is a 1973 Porsche 911 RSR, from the Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, Rhode Island.
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ICONS: Icons behind icons
As has been the case since its inception, Art and the Automobile displays vehicles against artistic backdrops, relevant to the car and the theme of the exhibit. In this case, the backdrops feature people, places or events that are themselves iconic, related to the vehicle or the period.
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ICONS: Stars of the show
Among the stars of the exhibit, and the show itself, are these two vehicles that stand front and centre inside the entrance to the gallery - a rare 1964 Ferrari 250 LM and one-of-a-kind coach-built 1938 Cadillac.
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ICONS: 1964 Ferrari 250 LM
Some might suggest that all Ferraris are icons but few, if any, are more iconic than the classic Ferrari 250 LM Berlinetta.
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ICONS: 1964 Ferrari 250 LM
Called the quintessential Ferrari by Road & Track, the 250 LM was the mid-engined successor to the legendary 250 GTO.
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ICONS: 1964 Ferrari 250 LM
Introduced to the public at the 1963 Paris Motor Show, it was designed by Pininfarina but its coachwork was produced by Carrozzeria Scaglietti. Just 32 LMs were built, making it even rarer than the vaunted GTO.
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ICONS: 1964 Ferrari 250 LM
As the 250 LM’s name implies, it was designed to compete at Le Mans, in the GT class. Not enough cars were built to qualify for the class so LMs raced for outright victory instead - and won in 1965, defeating Ferrari’s own prototypes and Ford’s GT juggernaut.
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ICONS: 1964 Ferrari 250 LM
Like the custom-built Cadillac in the background, this car has Swiss roots. The 9th of the 32 built, it has an extensive racing history, beginning with the Swiss racing team, Scuderia Filipinetti, for which it won its very first outing, driven by Ludovico Scarfiotti. It is currently owned by Ferrari, Ontario.
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ICONS: 1937 Cadillac Series 90 Roadster with Coachwork by Hartnett
Few Cadillacs of the Grand Classic era were sheathed in the custom coachwork that graced many of their prestigious competitors. A spectacular exception is this one-of-a-kind 1937 Series 90 Cabriolet, which was custom-built for a wealthy Swiss playboy, Philippe Barraud, by a relatively unknown local body-builder named Willy Hartmann.
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ICONS: 1937 Cadillac Series 90 Roadster with Coachwork by Hartnett
In 1937, Cadillac built just 50 of its most expensive Type 37, Series 90 chassis. All but two were bodied in-house by Fleetwood and one of the two chassis not routed to Fleetwood - this one - was delivered to the Edelweiss Garage, the local Cadillac dealer near Lausanne, Switzerland, where it had been ordered by young Mr. Barraud.
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ICONS: 1937 Cadillac Series 90 Roadster with Coachwork by Hartnett
While it looks like no other Cadillac, it maintains the Cadillac badge and the Cadillac goddess on the hood, as well as its 452 cu-in (7.4-litre) overhead-valve V-16 engine under the hood.
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ICONS: 1937 Cadillac Series 90 Roadster with Coachwork by Hartnett
Barroud commissioned Carrosserie Hartmann to design and build the car of his dreams – an outrageous, bespoke creation to suit his lavish lifestyle and to outdo the flashy Delahayes, Delages, and Talbot-Lagos of his peers,
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ICONS: 1937 Cadillac Series 90 Roadster with Coachwork by Hartnett
That Hartnett succeeded is apparent from any view of his creation, which borrows unashamedly from the themes of Parisian coach-builders of the day such as Figoni et Falaschi.
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ICONS: 1937 Cadillac Series 90 Roadster with Coachwork by Hartnett
In fact, the fender-form and swoopy side-striping closely resemble those on a Figoni et Falaschi-built Delahaye from the Paris show a year earlier.
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ICONS: 1937 Cadillac Series 90 Roadster with Coachwork by Hartnett
Unique to the Cadillac, however, is the vestigial rear fin down the centre-line of the decklid, which was not common among leading designs of the day. This car was judged a class winner as well as Most Elegant Convertible at the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
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ICONS: 1933 Delage D8S Coupe Roadster by De Villars
More sedate in its styling, but every bit as prestigious, is the 1933 Delage D8S Coupe, staged nearby. Both cars are owned and provided by the Patterson Collection of Louisville, Kentucky.
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ICONS: 1933 Delage D8S Coupe Roadster by De Villars
Delage was an iconic French automaker known for its advanced design and engineering and exceptional. The D8S, introduced in 1929, was the brand’s crown jewel, tailor-made to carry the most beautiful and elegant custom coachwork of the era. Only 99 D8S chassis were built over four years.
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ICONS: 1933 Delage D8S Coupe Roadster by De Villars
A design collaboration between Delage and custom-coachbuilder, Carrosserie de Villars of Paris, this car was the star of the 1934 Paris Salon. It is powered by a race-bred, 145-horsepower, 4.0-litre, straight-eight engine. Restored by RM Restoration of Chatham, Ontario, it was judged Best in Show at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
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ICONS: 1969 McLaren M6B Can-Am race car
Beyond the Delage and in complete contrast is a McLaren M6B Can-Am race car, backed by an image of motorsport icon Mario Andretti who raced the car in the 1969 season.
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ICONS: 1969 McLaren M6B Can-Am race car
The McLaren marque was all but synonymous with Can-Am series. This example – one of the few powered by a Ford engine - was dubbed the “429’er,” to promote Ford’s 429 production engine, but it was powered by an experimental 494-cubic-inch (8.1- litre) monster.
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ICONS: 1969 McLaren M6B Can-Am race car
The car was prepared for Ford by Holman and Moody of NASCAR and Le Mans fame and driven in four races by Mario Andretti. Andretti, who is an international member of the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, made a special appearance in the exhibit.
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ICONS: 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR
Continuing in the racing vein, there’s a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR backed by a huge poster featuring movie icon Steve McQueen, who was also an accomplished Porsche racer.
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ICONS: 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR
New racing regulations for 1973 prompted Porsche shifted its competition focus to its production 911 as the basis for a new breed of race-car. Five-hundred duck-tailed RS models were built specifically to homologate the RSR race car, which was the starting point for a GT racing dynasty that extends to this day.
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ICONS: 1963 Corvette Sting Ray
While some may consider all Corvettes to be icons, few will argue that the 1963 Sting Ray – the first car of the second generation, with an all-new body design – is the most iconic of all.
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ICONS: 1963 Corvette Sting Ray
It was the space age, as the backdrop behind this Corvette confirms, and the Sting Ray was a ground-breaking car, totally in tune with the optimism of the time.
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ICONS: 1963 Corvette Sting Ray
The distinctive styling of the second-generation Corvette was backed by American power and European chassis sophistication. What makes the ’63 unique among Sting Rays is its split rear-window, a feature found only in that model year.
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ICONS: 1963 Corvette Sting Ray
A unique feature available for the first time in ’63 was a fuel-injected 327 cubic-inch V-8 engine, rated at 360 horsepower. It’s a combination highly sought after by collectors.
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ICONS: 1952 Volkswagen Type 1 ‘Zwitter’
Designed in Germany by Ferdinand Porsche in the 1930s, the Volkswagen (“people’s car”) only achieved mass production in 1945. Affectionately dubbed the Beetle because of its shape, it quickly achieved world-wide popularity, ultimately surpassing the Model T as the longest-running, highest-volume vehicle built on a single platform, with more than 21.5-million produced.
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ICONS: 1952 Volkswagen Type 1 ‘Zwitter’
As iconic as the Beetle itself were its understated magazine advertisements from the ‘60s. Developed by the advertising firm of Doyle Dane Bernbach, their simple honesty, self-deprecating humour, and stark format stood in sharp contrast to most auto ads of the time, just as the car did to its mainstream competitors.
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ICONS: 1952 Volkswagen Type 1 ‘Zwitter’
This rare 1952 ‘Zwitter’ Type 1 is a transitional Beetle that included elements of both the original split-window and subsequent oval rear-window designs. ‘Zwitter’ is a nickname meaning hybrid.
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ICONS: 1955 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz
In the mid-1950s, Cadillac was the car people aspired to own and the top-of-the-line Eldorado Biarritz Convertible was the most aspirational Cadillac of all – the kind of car iconic movie stars like Marilyn Monroe drove.
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ICONS: 1955 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz
For 1955, the Biarritz became even more distinctive with its own dramatic rear-end styling, which featured higher, thinner tail-fins than even the rest of the Cadillac line – design cues that would characterize the brand for years to come.
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ICONS: 1927 Duesenberg Model Y
The year 1927 was a time of unbridled potential, highlighted by Charles Lindbergh making the first-ever solo flight across the Atlantic. It was the time one could conceive of the mighty Model J Duesenberg and build this one-off ‘Model Y’ prototype for that automotive masterpiece.
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ICONS: 1927 Duesenberg Model Y
The Duesenberg Model Y prototype was a collaboration by company owner, E.L, Cord, racer/engineer Fred Duesenberg, and brilliant young stylist Alan Leamy, whose designs would influence the whole industry for decades to come.
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ICONS: 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom I “Transformable Phaeton”
The Roaring Twenties was a period of newfound freedom and excess for many, which was an ideal market for companies like Rolls-Royce. To help satisfy the demand from the nouveau riche, R-R established an American plant in Springfield, Massachusetts, where it built this New Phantom.
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ICONS: 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom I “Transformable Phaeton”
This car, from the Audrain Automobile Museum, was built for Canadian-born Jack L. Warner, co-head of Warner Brothers Studios. It is one of only two Phantom I’s to feature a custom body by the Paris-based American coach-builders, Hibbard & Darrin.
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ICONS: 1938 Buick Y-Job
Widely considered to be the very first concept car, the Buick Y-Job was the brain-child of General Motors’ mercurial styling chief, Harley Earl, whose image accompanies the car in the exhibit. While Earl didn’t design the car, he extracted it from his designers’ minds exactly as he imagined it, stretching the envelope of what was deemed possible at the time.
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ICONS: 1938 Buick Y-Job
The Y-Job incorporated a long list of firsts, which would ultimately make it into production, included its horizontal grille motif and fender lines that extended into the doors. The car made its public debut at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel during the 1939 New York Auto Show, after which it became Earl’s personal car for the next 11 years.
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ICONS: 1947 Mercury ‘Woody’ Station Wagon
As both car and home ownership boomed in the years following WWII and families expanded and moved further out of city centres, so did the popularity of station wagons. Typical of the genre, this 1947 Mercury wagon retained the wood body construction of an earlier era from the cowl back, leading to the nickname ‘Woody.’
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ICONS: 1915 Ford Model T Touring
Named the Car of the Century in a world-wide competition, the Ford Model T both revolutionized and dominated the North American auto industry. It was introduced on October 1, 1908 and more than 15-million were built, with only minor changes in design, before production ceased on May 26, 1927.
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ICONS: 1915 Ford Model T Touring
Named the Car of the Century in a world-wide competition, the Ford Model T both revolutionized and dominated the North American auto industry. It was introduced on October 1, 1908 and more than 15-million were built, with only minor changes in design, before production ceased on May 26, 1927.
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ICONS: 1970 Citroën DS 21 Pallas
No French car of the post-war era is more iconically French than the Citroën DS, introduced in 1955 and built in successive DS 19, 21 and 23 models until 1975. Like its Traction Avant predecessor, the DS was a front-engine, front-wheel-drive car with stance and styling that were futuristic for their time.
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ICONS: 1949 Delahaye Type 175 Drophead Coupe
Founded in 1894, Delahaye was one of France’s Grande Marques in the pre-WWII era. Delahaye chassis were favourites of the vaunted French coach-builders of the day, such as Chapron, Figoni et Falaschi and Saotchik. The 175 was the company’s first all-new model of the post-war period and, like its pre-war predecessors, it became a common canvas for the artistic expressions of the few remaining coach-builders.
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ICONS: 1949 Delahaye Type 175 Drophead Coupe
This Delahaye, from the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, made its debut in the Figoni et Falaschi stand at the 1949 Paris Salon. It was purchased by the Maharaja of Mysore, ruler of one of the wealthiest states in British India. A subsequent owner painted it red and later in its life, it was owned by pop star, Elton John.
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