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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2016 52
On the road to becoming the Pebble Beach of the Northeast
– Rick Kopec
his was the twentieth anniver-
sary of the Greenwich Con-
cours, and it appears to be catching on.
In a historic town like Greenwich,
nothing happens overnight. Green-
wich is located in that small handle in
the southwestern part of Connecticut.
The towns along the western portion
of the Long Island Sound coast are
often referred to as Connecticut’s
“Gold Coast.”
The close proximity to New York
City makes Greenwich a desirable
place to live, and is reflected by both a
high
median
family
income
($167,820) and equally high property
values (in 2006 the median price for a
single-family home was $1.7M). Multi-
million dollar estates are common. We
include all this to make clear that
Greenwich is not exactly a working-
class factory town.
Where this level of wealth resides,
collections of expensive vehicles are,
like yacht ownership, not uncommon.
If you look at the areas that surround
the major concours events in the U.S.
you will note they share a number of
demographics, among them high in-
come and enclaves of exclusive com-
munities. After all, not many classic
and exotic cars would be attracted to
a concours d’elegance in Bison Breath,
North Dakota. Top cars are trans-
ported to prestigious events like
Amelia Island, Hershey, Meadowbrook
or Pebble Beach, but a fair number of
entries are, more or less, “local.”
About 250 cars were invited to
enter the Greenwich concours, which
was located in a park overlooking sce-
nic Greenwich Harbor. Like all major
concours weekends, one (or more)
major collector car auctions are in-
cluded in the festivities. Greenwich
T
Dr. Bob Gingold brought his amazingly detailed 427 Cobra, CSX3133. Normally bashful
about discussing his car, the TV reporter was able to coax a few tidbits of information
from Dr. Bob about the history of the car that took him almost forty years to restore.
The Cobra is a trophy magnet and collects awards like a homeless street person collects
head lice. This show was no exception.
When we first saw the large magnetic sign on the door of Richard Klein’s ‘66 GT350,
6S499, we thought he was supplementing his retirement income by picking up fares in
the Shelby as a Uber driver. Stepping a little closer, we saw it was a sign noting that
Klein is the original owner of this GT350 and is celebrating five decades of ownership.