The small city of Auburn, Indiana was the home of early 1900s auto manufacturers including Cord and Dusenberg. Each Labor Day weekend the town holds a festival and auto auctions celebrating those cars, and others.
As part of the celebration they have a large custom car show on Friday around the courthouse square. With more than 800 cars on display it was an impressive sight.
So come along – just enjoy it.
In addition to the shows there are two very large classic car auctions during the weekend. A massive one is held by Sotheby’s at a grounds outside of town – with hundreds of cars sold.
Another smaller one was held at the historic National Automotive and Truck Museum. We arrived in time to check out the cars during the preview.
This classic 1957 Pontiac Star Chief Custom Safari Wagon is a rare two door wagon.
Among the vehicles was this 1940s car carrier. I guess if you buy enough cars, you need to bid on the carrier to take them home.
Outside the building was this sweet Alpha Romeo.
While back inside we passed by a George Barris custom car. George is famous for designing cars for TV and the movies including the 1966 Batmobile, and the Munster’s car.
This car was originally a 1950 Mercury. Designed by Leo Lyons, with assistance from George, it was displayed at the 2015 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
After checking out the auction cars, we headed back to the courthouse square show where we found a brief preview of the Auburn’s we would see far more of on Saturday.
This early 1960s Chevy El Camino had a great vintage bike in the back.
Back in the day the idea of air conditioning was to pop open the windshield a bit.
A vintage Chevy Pickup.
With the arrival of the jet age, fins on cars mimicked the airplane look.
Nearby was the Kruse Auto Museum. Located in a building that seems to being vacated, but they did have some movie cars including a Batmobile.
A Carl Casper creation. Carl was another custom car creator like George Barris.
Our day ended at the Kruse Museum in a collection of Indy Cars. While this was a nice day with some cool cars, we knew the best was yet to come.
