Vintage Festival — A history lesson on four wheels

LIME ROCK — More than 250  cars spanning more than 80 years of automotive history will be at Lime Rock Park’s annual Vintage Festival, being held over the course of this Labor Day weekend, Friday, Sept. 4, to Monday, Sept. 7.

The festival will include nine groups representing different eras of car design.

“We’re going to have some extraordinary cars,†event organizer and racer Murray Smith said. “It’s going to be mammoth. We right now have double the car entries from last year. All of these cars are still extraordinary pieces of machinery. If you think about it, developments like automatic transmissions and run flat tires all came from racing cars from the last 80 years. These are all extraordinary pieces of rolling history.â€

Robert Kullas from Avon will be racing his 1969 Chevron B-16 and 1957 Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

“I have always been a race car fan,†Kullas said. “When I was 12 years old I would hang out at the Thomaston Race Track. If you look at the way professional racing is today, everything is all computerization and electronic gizmos. The older ones are more purely mechanical and they each have their own mechanics and beauty.â€

The racing schedule has been ramped up this year. At past festivals, the cars rarely did more than 15 laps.  This year, at least two of the races will be as much as one hour long — calling for intensified strategy, pit stops and refueling.

This year’s event will also feature a tribute to the Morgan Car Company, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Group one includes pre-World War II models, including a 1929 Bugatti 37A, a 1932 Plymouth Sprinter and a 1959 Watson Indy 500 Roadster.

Group two includes 1950s-era 2-liter sports cars, including Porsche, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Lotus and Fraser Nash vehicles.

Group three, also from the 1950s, includes Lolas, Ginettas and Elvas.

Group four features road cars and sedans from the mid 20th century, including Triumphs, Datsuns, Alfa Romeos and Morgans.

Group five  is for high-performance race cars including Ferraris, Lotus and Ford Escorts.

Group six are open-wheeled cars, including Venus, Zink, Cooper and Titan models.

Group seven are 1970s sports cars including Chevrons, Tigas and Matichs.

Group eight is all Porsches from 1967 through 1974.

And finally, group nine includes Trans-Ams and production race cars including Mustangs and Corvettes.

In other words, if you have ever wanted to see a particular race car from the past 80 years, in action, chances are you will be able to see it at this race.

As always, there will be a concours d’elegance on Sunday, called Sunday in the Park, with the cars lined up along the racetrack with their hoods up, ready for close inspection. This year, one of the judges is famed Porsche driver Vic Elford.

The cars of iconic designer Carroll Shelby in particular are a popular draw at this event.

For more information on the event, including a full schedule, visit Lime Rock Park’s Web site at limerock.com.