Photo courtesy of Jaguar Drivers Club of Long Island
The Jaguar Drivers Club of Long Island will hold its 45th Annual Jaguar Invitational Concours d’Elegance, a show of vintage and modern automobiles, on the Great Lawn at the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum overlooking Northport Bay on Sunday, September 16, from 11:00 to 4:00. (Rain date: September 23.)
The show is open to British and selected international vehicles of all years, makes, and models. A highlight of the show will be the display of a 1952 Jaguar XK 120 purchased new by actor Clark Gable.
The car, originally gray with a red interior, was customized for Gable by the renowned Sam and George Barris. Modifications included a “Barris Gold” paint job, shaving the front fenders and rear deck, and installation of a removable canvas top. Recently, the car received a $330,000 ground-up restoration.
To see the show, visitors pay only general museum admission at the door: $8 adults, $7 seniors (62 years and older) and students with ID, $5 children 12 and under. There is no additional charge to attend the car shows. The Vanderbilt Museum is located at 180 Little Neck Road, Centerport, N.Y.
(Note: General admission includes estate-grounds access to the Memorial Wing natural-history and ethnographic-artifact galleries, Nursery Wing, Habitat Room, Hall of Fishes, Egyptian mummy and Stoll Wing animal-habitat dioramas. For a Mansion tour or a Planetarium show, add $6 per ticket.)
The Vanderbilt Museum has honored William K. Vanderbilt II’s (1878-1944) automotive legacy by hosting classic-car shows on its grounds for more than three decades.
Mr. Vanderbilt, a pioneer race driver who competed in Europe, brought auto racing to the United States. He inaugurated the famous Vanderbilt Cup Races in 1904. That same year, he set a new land-speed record of 92.3 miles per hour in a Mercedes at a course in Florida. He also spurred the development of the American auto industry and built the prototype for the first toll road, the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway on Long Island.
