Sunday Morning Dog Show Offers a Quick History of English Cars

Boulder's June 28 Coffee and Classics provided some surprises, including this 1931 Bentley, which stalwarts of the marque would consider a "real Bentley", designed by engineer William O. Bentley and built by his firm before its bankruptcy and takeover by Rolls-Royce after the summer of that same year.

One reason Bentley fans were so loyal was the Bentleys proved themselves in road racing, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, '27, '29 and '30.  The cars were big and burly, leading Ettore Bugatti to compare these British competitors to trucks...

But there was some innovative engineering behind those tall radiators, and a crowd gathered when the owner opened the bonnet...

This turned out to be one of four 4.5 liter four-cylinder Bentleys which modified to receive the 8.0 liter inline six. Like the fours, the Bentley sixes featured a single overhead cam, with 4 valves and twin spark plugs per cylinder.  Ironically, the 4.5 liter four originally in this car had been developed from the 6.5 liter six.

This 1938 SS Jaguar 1.5 liter got plenty of attention for its immaculate condition and traditional styling. 

It was also a reminder that Jaguars were not always notable for power. This one was powered by a 1.5 liter Standard engine from the company that bought Triumph after World War 2.

The famous XK engine was hatched during an air raid over the Coventry Jaguar factory, when founder William Lyons, on the rooftop with engineers William Heynes and Walter Hassan, brainstormed engine concepts with his team.  After the war, the "SS" letters on Jaguar badges were deleted. They had originally stood for Swallow Sidecar (the company started making sidecars for motorcycles), but after the war those initials had unpleasant associations.

This race-modified MG TC was designed in the same period as the '38 Jag, appearing pre-war as the TB.  Though the TC was the first MG to be imported in noticeable numbers Stateside, all TCs were right-hand drive.

Because the organizers weren't able to get cars parked in chronological order, we'll take a break like this napping pup, to consider the lines of Jaguar's XK150 (1957-'61), the third roadster from the Coventry firm with the twin-cam XK inline six. 

There were coupes, too, like this XK150.  Jaguar pioneered 4-wheel disc brakes on their race cars in 1953, and on production cars in 1957 with the XK150.

Jaguar followed the XK150 in April of 1961 with the E-Type, known in the US as the XKE.  Thin-shell bucket seats are a sign that this is an early Series 1, originally supplied with 3.8 liter engine and non-synchro first gear on the 4 speed gearbox.  

The alloy center instrument panel shown below changed to vinyl when the 4.2 liter engine came along for the 1965 model year...

The Series 3 E-Type came along a decade after the original, in April 1971, with a new 5.3 liter V12, but the same inboard disc brakes and independent rear suspension as the Series 1 and 2, so sturdy they were used by hot rodders.  It's parked next to an MG TD (1949-'53) and a Triumph TR4-A (1965-'68).

Out of chronological order but not out of style, we find an Austin-Healey 100M, first seen as an eye-catching prototype at the '52 Earls Court show, and adopted for production from specialist maker Healey by BMC. Body design by Gerry Coker still gets attention.  Engine was a 2.6 liter inline four...

Replaced by a 2.6 liter inline 6 in the 100-6, and a 3 liter version in the blue and green examples below.  By the end of the 3000 line in 1967, there were amenities like wind-up windows and wood dash panels, but still a bit of cowl shake from chassis flex.

This visitor seemed to approve of those Healeys as much as the photographer did...

Yeah, we know the focus here is on English stuff, not Porsches.  But the Golden Retriever came out of the Scottish Highlands over a century and a half ago, so those Porsches are just background scenery...

This '67 MGB-GT shows off Pininfarina's redesign of the original roadster introduced in late '62 as a sort of sports wagon hatchback coupe.  This one has received a Ford Zetec twin-cam engine transplant.

The 2nd-generation Lotus Elise below brings us into the 21st century. Produced from 2002-'10, the 2nd generation featured a fiberglass body over a bonded-aluminum chassis like the early Elise, but in the US version, substituted a 1.8 liter Toyota  twin-cam four for the original Rover K-Series.  The Elise was the first Lotus designed on a computer, but managed to look like fun anyway.

Maybe as much fun as AC's Ace from 1954-'63, built from a prototype by John Tojeiro with a tubular chassis and 4-wheel independent suspension to go with AC's old SOHC 2-liter six and a Bristol six option after 1956.  This car became famous as the chassis and body for the AC Shelby Cobra...

But this example has been owned by the same guy since 1962, the year Shelby built his first Cobra.  For this owner, the car was not an investment, but evidence of some deeper dedication.  We just managed to capture it on the way out, but it's our nominee for best of show.

Photo Credits:

All photos are by the author.

Roadside Attraction: Durango's Smiley Building Finds New Life Through Community Involvement

 

We first heard about the Smiley Building from an artist friend* in Durango, a southwest Colorado town with over 6,500 feet of elevation, under 20,000 people, and a vibrant downtown. The Smiley is a landmark junior high school designed by Colorado Springs architect Charles Thomas and built in 1936 with funding from the Federal Government's Works Progress Administration. 

The school was named for Emory Smiley, a school superintendent very popular with students. Smiley resisted having a school named after him, but he lost that argument. The school served as a junior high for 25 years, converted to a high school 25 years later, and the school district moved its programs to another school sixty years after the school was designed. That meant the historic structure was suddenly quiet and vacant…

But not for long.  Local brothers Charles and John Shaw, along with Charles' wife Lisa Bodwalk, proposed conversion to a community center with a cafe, gallery space and artists' studios, and the school district sold them the building in 1997. The Smiley Studios nonprofit soon got to work with hundreds of  community volunteers on repairing damage on the 45,000 square foot structure, setting up a window restoration shop in the basement after receiving a grant in 1999. The Shaws provided supervision and much of the labor on the windows.   In 2001 another grant funded a historic restoration study by Atkinson-Noland & Associates of Boulder, addressing brick masonry restoration.    

The new owners also focused on making the complex energy efficient and self-sustaining, installing a large array of PV cells on the building and over the parking walkway, and drilling 20 new wells to power ground-source heat pumps that provide winter heating as well as summer cooling.  In 2008, the Smiley Building was awarded the Colorado Governor's Excellence in Renewable Energy Award as a pioneering carbon-free energy project.

Along with the building restoration and energy projects, the exterior received some artistic attention. These murals, in the spirit of WPA-era public art, were produced by artist Brad Goodell and dedicated in 2025...

On a recent afternoon, the Smiley is busy inside.  You can order a coffee and a pastry at the Smiley Café, check email or just people watch.  Along with artists' studios and apartments, the building houses dance studios, nonprofit offices, a greenhouse and 2 schools...

Along with the ArtRoom Collective, a big artists' work space with individual studios for producing and displaying art ranging in size from jewelry to wall-size paintings.  Note how windows left over from the restoration program are used to define each artist's space...

At a time when green energy projects, and anything involving community infrastructure, are seeing reversals by the Federal Government, it's encouraging to see that a project motivated by those interests has saved a historic building, given it new life, and provided a vital meeting place for the community.

And in an era when corporations (and at least one politician) put their names on buildings they didn't build, it's reassuring that the owners and the team of volunteers who worked so hard rescuing this building have decided to leave Emory Smiley's name on it, as a way of remembering a public servant who never wanted his name on anything...  

*Many thanks to Durango artist and jewelry maker Jennifer Floyd of Cartwheel Studio, who introduced us to the Smiley Building.

Photo Credits:

All photos are by the author.

Sunday Morning Dog Show with Cars in Color (Getting Away from Gray)

The second monthly Sunday morning session of Fuelfed's Boulder Coffee and Classics kicked off at 8 AM on Sunday, May 31 under sunny, warm conditions that prompted many fans of the free event to bring their dogs...

...and many of the participants to bring some colorful cars. The organizers seem to have arranged many of these specimens along Pearl Street with a special eye for color. Anyone tired of of the current fashion for institutional gray cars would have enjoyed our new friend Tim's bright aquamarine De Tomaso Pantera from the early 70s.   

Maybe because blue is one of 2 colors that dogs see well (yellow is the other, a clue about why they chase that tennis ball), these pooches seemed to enjoy camping out near the sky blue Ferrari in the background.

Indeed, the 812 GTS, made from 2017-24, proved worth a second look. The front-engined V12 was a series-produced open version of the 812 Superfast coupe, designed at Ferrari's own styling center rather than at Pininfarina like the preceding 550, 575 and 599 models.  

Porsche's 964 version of the air-cooled 911 was made from 1989-94, featuring standard antilock brakes, power steering and a 3.6 liter flat six. The vibrant magenta color on this one was available on special order.  

The yellow Ferrari Testarossa (named for the red cam covers on its flat-12 engne) completes a lineup of primary and not-so -primary colors. 

A blue Ferrari Dino 246 with 4-cam V6 from the late Sixties keeps a white Lamborghini Gallardo V10 company as an Alfa Romeo GTV from the '64-'67 period approaches.

This XK120 made from 1948 through 1954 gets points for being the only Jaguar at the show. The Jag looks better without its bumpers, which never offered much in the way of protection anyway.

This bright yellow 1993 Lancia Delta Integrale Evo 1 sits proudly behind the red HF insignia that reminds you the Integrale won 6 consecutive World Rally Constructors' Championships from 1987 to 1992, based upon 46 WRC victories.  It wins our unofficial award for the show's coolest car you could actually drive every day of a Colorado year.

Power goes to all four wheels from a 16-valve, turbocharged inline four of 2 liters mounted transversely...

The owner of this 1966 Mercedes 230SL brought a retriever friend with matching cream-colored coat.

The owners of the McLaren below could not bring a furry friend in anything like a matching color.  But we're glad they brought the car... 

Across 8th St. from the orange McLaren we found a Ford GT, one of just over 4,000 produced from mid-2004 through 2006 in the style of the mid-engined GT40 endurance racer from 1964-67.  The original GT40, named for its height in inches, was also V8 powered, but only 105 of these were built, including 7 of the Mk. III version civilized for road use, which could be considered the precursor of the 2005-06 Ford GT.

The neighbor of the Ford GT is a McLaren MP4-12c featured in our April 30 post. Like the newer orange McLaren across the street, it's powered by a mid-mounted twin-turbocharged V8. 

After grumping about the popularity of gray on modern cars, the author admits guiltily that he brought one of the few gray cars to Sunday's show. The 1970 Lancia Flavia 2000 Pininfarina coupe (at least it has a red and black interior) is powered by a 2-liter, aluminum flat four driving the front wheels, and sits next to Kevin Roberts' cheerful green Citroen DS21, a hydro-pneumatically suspended, front-drive car we've featured before.

A friendly pooch across the street near Spruce Confections wins our award for best doggie name at the show. She's Maple, after the most famous product of her home country...

Other pooches came over to play and enjoy the shade and the music at Spruce Confections...

On warm enough Sundays, the cheery sound of live bluegrass-inflected music fills the Spruce courtyard at the 8th and Pearl intersection, overlapping the show of dogs and cars, which officially runs from 8 to 10, but often spills over limits of time and space, like music does.

Photo Credits:

All photos are by the author.