Scheduled for Los Angeles April 23, 2023…
by Wallace Wyss –
Now mostly yours truly goes to concours d’elegance where the cars are grouped by make and only right and proper restored apply and judges go about, brows furrowed, fretting mightily over such details as “Did the gas cap on that MG-TD come in chrome?”
Then there’s the kind The Queens English represents. It’s sponsored by Autobooks/Aerobooks, a notable bookshop in the San Fernando Valley, that has two events, inviting cars by nationality–there’s The Best of France and Italy and the one coming up–The Queen’s English. Even being a dutiful Anglophile, I don’t know what that means but I think it means “done according to the English style as would be approved by Her Majesty.” (now that we don’t have in point of fact a Queen of the Realm on the throne, what then?) Bit of a sticky wicket…(I did look it up, Merriam-Webster says it pertains to speech, i.e., “standard, pure, or correct English speech.” Blimey, no Cockney here…
This one is scheduled for Woodley Park in Van Nuys, and there is a fee to enter your car in the show, something like $25 ($30 the day of the show). It is hard by Los Angeles, on the upper rim of the city so to speak, a stone’s throw from the I-405 freeway.
Our editor, Mike Gulett, also loves British cars – his first car was a Triumph TR6 similar to this one
The cars will be grouped by marque–the Bentleys here, the Jags there but some very special cars just park where they land like Jay Leno in his Merlin powered Bentley Special. And then here’s brands that in America, won’t have much of a following–say Armstrong Siddeley or Wolseley. Somebody loves them.
What makes these two shows different from concours is that the display cars are allowed to enter unrestored, even not quite finished and to an old barn finder like me that’s delectable. All you have to do is find a bloke who has a Jag in sore need of paint and upholstery for his E-type and fill him in on what those things cost lately in the modern world of 2023. He might decide to bail out right then and there in exchange for sufficient Pounds sterling.
I have a theory that many of the cars in this show only leave their garage once a year and are maybe not even licensed, but by guess and by gosh, they manage to muddle through enough to make it to the park. Such admirable pluck!
They also allow motorcycles, and, having once been a motorcycle scribe (still miss not buying that Brough Superior) I’ll look at those and thank my lucky stars I didn’t get tempted more into the world of only two wheels.
The show opens at 9am and yours truly plans to be there in the auto jumble section which is some slang term for swap meet. Not too many hard parts there, but books and models. I don’t have much True Brit stuff but I’m hoping The Best of France and Italy fans come to this show too.
The show is free for spectators (how often d’ya hear those words?) If you want more facts or a map go to this link.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR SPEAKS; If you know a gallery into automotive art, tell them I’ll send a sample for them to try out on the wall. I can be reached at maibucarart@gmail.com
Queen Elizabeth
I hope that any My Car Quest readers who attend this show will send in photos!