FULLERTON – The only thing greater than the cars is the cause.
The two-day Muckenthaler Motor Car Festival, featuring a hot-rod delegation and Great Gatsby gala, wrapped up Sunday with a concours d’elegance that helped net a six-figure haul for youth art programs.
Historic woodies with corduroy seats, original Austin Mini Coopers and a concept Bugatti valued at $3 million lined the lawn at the Muckenthaler estate, where jazz wafted in the air in a handsome counterpoint to rumbling muscle-car exhausts.
Jane Parker, president of the Muckenthaler Cultural Center Foundation’s board, said the center’s ceramics and repertory theater “fill the gap” left by slim school art budgets.
At the same time, the festival helps “continue the hobby and preservation of classic cars,” said Nick David, the festival’s chairman. “They’re not replaceable – when they’re gone, they’re gone. We’ve got to keep them.”
But for all the enriching achievements, it was the weather that won acclaim from skittish observers with one eye on the clouds and one eye on vulnerable ragtops and fresh coats of carnauba wax.
“I can’t believe how the rain is holding out,” said Patricia House, executive director of the foundation. “God is a car collector – and she loves Mercedes.”
Contact the writer: (714) 445-6683 or joverley@ocregister.com
