EXCALIBURS AT GREATER MILWAUKEE AUTO SHOW

The "featured" car at the Milwaukee auto show this year was the Excalibur.  Beginning in the early 1960s these cars were built in very limited production in Milwaukee.  Modeled by Milwaukeean Brooks Stevens after a late 1920s Mercedes Benz roadster, the cars were intended for individuals who wanted a modern car of "classic" design.  They never really caught on but were produced sporadically until the early 1990s by various makers.  There were perhaps a half dozen Excaliburs at the show and I did get several photos.

The most striking of the models was a stretch limo.

Because of where the car was situated at the show and because of the crowds, it was not feasible to get a shot of the entire length of the car.  So you'll have to accept my word that this car stretched out quite a ways to the rear.  It would be fun, I think, to rent the car as a limo.  Here is a shot of the front end.

I particularly liked the dual horns that extended on both sides of the grille and tried to get a shot that focused just of the front edge of one of the horns.

The Excalibur had a very distinctive hood ornament--the Excalibur sword, of course.

Again, I wanted just to feature the ornament, so I opened up the aperture to f/4 and shot the ornament from close range to blur out everything else.

There were a few other Excaliburs featured at the show and here are shots of a couple of those.

Most of the Excaliburs featured elaborate exhaust manifolds, as in the following image.

Strictly ornamental and nonfunctional.

Finally, here is another photo of a hood ornament.

I took this on an oblique angle because I wanted to position the ornament against a dark red background.  But I wound up liking the composition for the chrome stripe, running down the center of the hood, that does a nice job of drawing the viewer's attention to the ornament.

John