There aren’t many events that are more appealing to me than the Concours d’Elegance, which is why I was so happy when I found out NOWNESS wanted to dispatch me to cover the weekend long event. The Concours — which takes place every year on the third Sunday in August at the Pebble Beach Golf Links in California — is without question America’s most prestigious vintage auto gathering. In addition to its esteemed reputation amongst collectors,  the show should be ranked at the highest levels of awe and (vintage car) jealously for mere mortals like myself. Concours also ranks up there in terms of people watching and supercar spotting, by the end of the weekend seeing a Bugatti or Enzo was akin to spotting a new Taurus — no biggie. You can read my account and see some wonderful images from the 2010 Concours d’Elegance at NOWNESS.

Photos by Douglas Friedman for NOWNESS.

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A certain 1972 Chevy has had my attention for the past few months. I’m not in a position to get one, but damn I think about it all the time. I really love all of those 1970s Chevy trucks, especially the C10s and the late 70s Suburbans a la Bad Blake. The film Crazy Heart had me up late on the internet looking for 1978 Suburbans in that perfect two-tone rust colorway. Try as I did, a good photo of that particular truck proved elusive, but I did manage to find the nice wood grain Suburban below and a whole bunch of old Chevy truck ads from the 1960s. What really strikes me are those egg shell blue and green colors — that’s pretty much as American as it gets. For more old truck imagery check out this gent’s Flickr and enjoy the old Chevys below. In the mean time, I’ll try to figure out what I want to spend my imaginary 20K on, a British milspec Rollie or a 1972 C10 two-tone.

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Not sure who this fine piece of American metal belongs to, but I sure was jealous when I saw it in the flea market parking lot in Connecticut this weekend. The pride of Toledo, that is one good looking Willys Overland in the most vintage of colors. I bet Martha Stewart would have cut a check for it on the spot. Well, If I had the kind of dough she does I would have.

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The only thing this beast can’t pass is a gas station.

Driving with my buddy in L.A. this past week and I spotted this late 1960s International Harvester Travelall and couldn’t resist pulling a Nick Maggio (sans bag of iPhone-photo-app-trickery) on this monster. I couldn’t even imagine driving these back in the day when they first came out — before everyone drove an SUV.

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In the early 1980s two things happened that led Audi to dominate rally racing competitions for the better part of the decade. First, FIA restrictions governing the types of cars that can enter rally competitions were loosened significantly for a new class of cars called Group B. The other game changer was Audi’s introduction of the Sport Quattro S1 to the World Rally Championship. In the late Seventies rear wheel drive cars were the norm in rally racing, but when Audi introduced its Quattro all-wheel-drive rally racing was forever changed. The cars were so fast and so powerful that a series of fatal accidents led to Group B’s downfall after only four years.

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A nice follow up to the Porsche 914 factory photos from 1972, this five part video from the 1960s takes you through the entire build process of the famed German sports car. Those photos made their way to all sorts of different sites and a few different forums, which is how I found these videos. If you aren’t into metal work, it might be worth it to skip ahead to part II. But the remaining four videos are definitely worth part of your Sunday. Enjoy!

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Chances are if I am going to buy an expensive sports car it would be a Porsche. Ferraris and Lambos are just too flashy for me. Not to say that a Porsche isn’t flashy, but there is a difference — at least in my mind. I will say that if the money was there I would defy everything I just said and buy a Bugatti Veyron, mainly because of this video. Porsche has just remained so consistent over the years that you can’t not love them. Give me a GT2 and i’ll be happy. Give me a GT2 in Bavaria and I will be really happy. Seeing as the days of ripping up the road in some expensive German engineering are still to come, I’ll (we’ll) have to settle for this 914 farm circa 1972. All of these images came from this gallery and show the quaint production of 1970s Porsches being made in Germany by workers wearing overalls. Sports cars and factory photos? Sign me up. More after the jump.

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That is a fine looking piece of machinery, a 1976 two-tone Ford Bronco Ranger in very nice condition. The best part is this slice of pure American pride is for sale. I spotted her over the weekend and it was love at first sight — I mean look at those wipers! From the looks of it this model seems to be the precursor to another favorite of mine, the Ford Bronco II. If I remember correctly this is pretty much the same car that the football coach drives in Dazed and Confused. So if you want to be like a 1970′s Texas football coach then scoop this baby up. If an ACL reader does buy it, I’ll take you out for a steak dinner and give you some Lone Star beers from my private reserve, because you are one bad ass individual and you deserve a pat on the back.

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Some people just know how to collect things, Nick Alexander is one of those people. Not content with owning just one classic car, Mr. Alexander (you may recognize the name if you live in Southern California from the Alexander BMW / Mini stores) set out to amass a collection of wood trimmed Ford and Mercury “woodies” that represented every aspect of the style, restoring many with painstakingly detail. After assembling one of (if not) the finest collection of woodies in the world, Mr. Alexander has decided to pass along the beautiful automobiles (for what I’m sure will be a healthy sum of money) this coming August 12th & 13th at the Sports & Classics of Monterey auction which coincides with the renowned Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

1940 Ford Standard Station Wagon Marmon-Herrington front exterior

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First the Bronco II, then the IH Scout and now…the Dodge A100 van-truck! I’m getting more obscure by the minute, but check out the flat face on this Mopar mother. How could you not love a machine that looks like that, big-old spit screen windshield and everything. Its a van with 30% of its sheet metal whittled off — like someone just took a sawzall and chopped it up into a truck. American engineering at its finest. I suppose it does makes sense when you consider the fact that the A-100 was offered as a straight-up van as well. I much prefer the truck version though — especially in that robin’s egg two-tone.

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The fine gentlemen at Top Gear continue to impress with their inventive programming. Presenter Jeremy Clarkson recently profiled the new and breathtakingly awesome Range Rover Sport (supercharged) for the much revered BBC series. After going over the performance (naught to sixty in 7 seconds, not bad for a SUV), Clarkson took the Range Rover to the proving grounds to do battle with a British Challenger II tank. The result is automotive television at its finest.

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Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

I have had an interest in the Airstream caravans for a long time. They are one of the most iconic American designed products of all time and they are made in good old Jackson Center, Ohio. The company has recently become so popular with the upwardly-mobile and design conscience that Airstream saw it fit to collaborate with Design Within Reach. Although, I don’t know that I would need to go so far as to buy the crazy (crazy awesome), DWR version but the simple International Ocean Breeze being towed by a GMC Sierra Denali would do the trick. Ha!

Keep in mind, I live in New York City and gas is $4+ a gallon, so this isn’t happening anytime soon. The good news is, the Airstream design will be just as iconic by the time I get around to buying one of them.

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