This Was The Best Covered Car At Monterey Car Week

I’m back! I’ve been out at Monterey Car Week, seeing all the cars and debasing all the events and rolling around in our tiny 787bb, but now I’m back, sore and tired and full of new rashes but happy to be home. I saw lots of fascinating cars and details and all that, and I’ll do my best to share all that stuff with you as best I can, because, dammit, you deserve it. I need to get started a little slowly, so we’ll get going with something important: the best covered car at the Concurs d’Elegance.

Now, by “covered” I don’t mean in the sense of the car that has received the most media coverage, but rather literally, as in “under a cover.” Some of the cars parked on the big green lawn on that Monterey coast have covers on them, at least for a bit in the mornings, though I suppose the ones that drive in for Dawn Patrol don’t bother with that? Anyway, there are some covered cars still as the day begins, and one in particular caught my eye.

It was this one:

There’s something about the proportions of this covered car that caught my imagination; they were tall and cartoony, strange and oddly endearing proportions that made this covered machine seem like a toy or something similarly friendly.

The shape was sort of Kei-car-like, though one glance at those wheels made it pretty clear that’s not what we’re dealing with here, in case the presence of the car on the lawn at the Concurs d’Elegance wasn’t enough. Speaking of, I also like how non-d’Elegance the thing looks under the cover, too.

The shape of it made me want to speculate, wildly and deeply wrongly, about what might be under there. Here’s some speculative sketches:

This is sort of the baseline of what that shape suggested to me: maybe some kind of tiny early ’60s British car, kind of like an Austin A35 or something. Something frumpy but friendly, like a chubby puppy.

I could also imagine a more ’80s-style angular hatchback under there, perhaps with a roof rack and some luggage to explain the shape of the top part. Something Japanese, small, and unlikely to be there.

Maybe there’s a sporty targa-topped thing under there? With fender flares and probably a flashy paintjob? And a little cocaine in the glovebox?

Or, how about this: maybe it’s facing the other way, and what we’re looking at is a little stubby pickup truck? A cabover sort of thing, mid-engined, with a short but usable bed?

Or, what if the top there isn’t a roof, but a big wing? What if this is some kind of (also) mid-engined supercar, just severely shrunken? All covered with big air-intake vents and flared sides and strakes and all the expected supercar frippery?

These speculations are fun, at least for me, but let’s see what is actually under that cover. Are you ready? Take a breath. Here it is:

Look at that! My sketches weren’t even close, but I expected that. This is a pretty fascinating car, really: A 1904 Rolls-Royce Barker Park Phaeton. This car is especially notable because it is the oldest Rolls-Royce in existence!

Cuddlesworth Rolls and Philimongrel Royce (just kidding; it was Charles and Henry) started their automotive partnership in 1904, and their first car was the 10 hp. This was before the iconic Pantheon grille, before the flying chrome lady, before all that.

The body for this car was by Barker & Co, the recommended body provider for early Rolls-Royce cars, and is essentially a comfortable bench mounted on a platform, with a windshield and a tall folding roof featuring double functional landau bars.

Two cylinders, 10 horsepower, great yellow color, lots of complicated and shiny details. It cuts a pretty different look uncovered than covered, but I think I appreciate it in both states. How many cars can you say that about?

Actually, quite a few, now that I think about it.