1931 DeSoto Roadster belongs to Norma Weaver of Ann Arbor. DeSotos and Plymouths were this year's featured orphans.
Orphan show opens arms to growing list of fallen nameplates
By Jenny King / Special to The Detroit News
Jack Miller, curator of the Automotive Heritage Museum and a show organizer, said the number of individual no-longer-built makes at the 12th annual event on the banks of the Huron River was greater than in previous years (he did not elaborate with actual numbers).
"We have over 330 vehicles registered in 15 classes for the show - about the same as last year," Miller said. "They include a McIntyre, a Powell from Ohio, a Mitchell from Wisconsin and an Allard."
The featured makes for 2008 were DeSoto and Plymouth. Miller said there were 36 DeSotos and over 20 Plymouths on the park grounds on what turned out to be a beautiful, breezy early summer Sunday.
Ken and Mary Ann Havekost of Monroe were sitting at the river's edge, swapping stories with other Nash enthusiasts. The Havekosts had driven their blue 1948 Nash woodie sedan up to Ypsi earlier in the day. That was a last-minute decision based on the weather, Ken Havekost said. Rain would damage the beautiful ash-and-mahogany wood that covered the rear deck lid and sides of the sedan.
The '48 Nash woodie, with blue leather seats, captured the attention of the Detroit News Joyrides team, who by early afternoon had selected it for the 2008 Detroit News Joyrides Choice Award.
"I've restored 28 Nashes over the years," Havekost said. "I bought this one in 1988 in Idaho for $3,000. It is one of only four still around (Nash built 130 of them for 1948) and today it's worth over $100,000."
1954 Allard K-3, imported without an engine from England, now is powered by a 331-cubic-inch Cadillac V-8. It is owned by Don Baron of Lansing.
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Havekost, who does much of the work himself when he's not tending crops on his 100-plus acre farm, said his Nash 64 has a six-cylinder engine and three-speed manual transmission. There is an overdrive available for each of the three forward gears; it's activated by easing up on the gas pedal, he said.
"We use this car - it was meant to be driven," Havekost said. "It went to Uniontown, Pa., for a meet a couple of years ago."
Don Baron also drove his entry to the Orphan Show: a red convertible 1954 Allard with 331-cubic-inch Cadillac V-8 under the hood.
"I had the top down when I came over from Lansing this morning," said Baron, whose other collectibles include some older Corvettes. "I was wearing a cap and jacket. It was cold."
The Allard, which when it was shipped to the U.S. from the factory in England typically arrived without an engine, was Baron's first entry in the Orphan Show.
This was also a debut in Ypsi for the blue-green Powell wagon being shown by Zoe Vernis, an Eastern Michigan University student from Akron, Ohio.
In the mid-1950s the Powell brothers of Compton, Calif., bought up chassis and flathead six engines from 1941 Plymouths and in two years' time turned out some very basic, very affordable (around $1,000 each) Power wagons and pickups. When they ran out of Plymouth underpinnings, they closed up their auto show, Vernis said.
The Piches of Berkley, Mich., brought their cheerful, white Ultra Van to the show for the third time this year. This bulbous sleeps-two recreation vehicle is powered by a 110-horsepower, rear-mounted Corvair engine with a two-speed transmission. A frameless, monolithic truck with aluminum exterior panels, it was upfitted by the Ultra Van company out of Hutchinson, Kan., back in 1968.
1928 Diana belongs to Bob and Shari Emery of Columbia, Mo., not far from St. Louis.
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"They produced 300 Ultra Vans," said Paul Piche. "We've owned it since 1996. We had to do a lot of work on it, but we have taken it all over, including Florida and South Dakota."
Piche said he and his wife, Barb, plan to drive their motor home to Nebraska in September for this year's Ultra Van meet.
The elegantly trimmed, black-and-white 1928 Diana belonging to Bob and Shari Emery of St. Louis was, without question, a trailer queen.
Granted, St. Louis is not a short drive from Michigan, and the Emerys believe their coupe is the only one of its kind.
They did, however, drive it on the Saturday (May 31) tour to the Chrysler Proving Grounds in Chelsea, a popular event that precedes the Sunday show.
Bob Emery said the Diana was the product of Diana Motors Company, a subsidiary of the Moon Motor Car Company, which built cars between 1905 and 1929. Obviously designed with women buyers/drivers in mind, it has a cameo-like Diana badge atop the nickel-plated radiator shell built by the Moon, a seductive gold-colored woman as its hood ornament, and, as Shari Emery noted, a compartment for golf clubs for the liberated, "modern" women of the 1920s.
The Diana was an "assembled" car, Bob Emery said, using components largely produced outside the company. It featured an eight-cylinder Continental engine.
The Orphan Car Show is a fund raiser for the Automotive Heritage Museum and Miller Motors Hudson in nearby Depot Town. The museum houses vehicles with ties to Washtenaw County plus archives and artifacts. It is open to the public and is available for special tours.
This 1948 Nash Ambassador owned by Ken and Mary Ann Havekost of Monroe, Mich., receieved a Detroit News Joyrides Choice Award at Sunday's show.
Dewey Norton / Special to The Detroit News 
Dewey Norton / Special to The Detroit News |
