Author: Ken Gross

Ken Gross is a Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Chief Class Judge and a founding member of the International Chief Judges’ Advisory Group (ICJAG). He served as Executive Director of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and his 15 critically acclaimed auto exhibitions have drawn record crowds at major fine-art museums nationwide. The author of 25 books, Ken has been contributing to SCM for more than three decades.

1937 Cord 812 Westchester Street Rod

Purists cry out in despair when custom cars are made from desirable models, but in this case the builder told me he had found four Cord Westchester bodies in a Texas wrecking yard and used “the worst of the four” {vsig}2004-10_1423{/vsig} This all-steel, all-real 1937 Cord Westchester 812 started life […]

1938 Lincoln Zephyr Street Rod

The ringmen worked this sale hard, and at its dramatic conclusion the owners were high-fiving as though they’d just won the lottery {vsig}2004-6_1232{/vsig} The Zephyr Street Rod on offer here is one of the most famous street rods ever created. This custom, all-steel Lincoln Zephyr three-window coupe was nationally selected […]

1932 Ford Ricky Nelson roadster

This is the real thing, in a sea of fiberglass-bodied imitators with their ubiquitous 350 Chevy V8s and TH400 transmissions {vsig}2004-2_1258{/vsig} If this channeled ’32 roadster looks familiar to nostalgia-prone baby boomers, it is because it’s the same car that David and Ricky Nelson drove in a memorable episode of […]