The Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA), the world’s largest organization of its kind, held its annual Grand Nationals in Auburn, Indiana, this past weekend. Hosted by the AACA National organization and the local Crossroads Region of the AACA, the four-day event included RM Auctions’ Auburn Spring Auction along with AACA’s annual Zenith Award competition and its Grand Nationals car show. The Zenith award is presented to the finest restored vehicle shown at a National AACA event in the previous year. This year’s winner was chosen from the more than 3,500 cars, trucks and motorcycles shown across the U.S. during 2018. AACA’s annual Grand Nationals is without question the nation’s largest and most diverse gathering of the finest restored vehicles in the country.
Two Zenith Award contenders were nominated from each 2018 AACA Nationals show by the AACA National Awards judging team. The 16 special hand-picked vehicles arrived in Auburn, Indiana, that Friday for the third annual Zenith Awards in the quest to be dubbed Restoration of the Year.
When the judging team convened after nearly six hours evaluating the field, the 1931 Buick Series 90 Sport Roadster owned by David and Susan Landow of Maryland was crowned the 2019 Zenith Award winner. The restoration took seven years to complete with painstaking research done by Landow to make certain that restoration expert John Fields had all the necessary information on materials, etc. to make the restoration exacting in every detail. Landow was quoted as saying “I would call receiving the AACA Zenith Award the single most gratifying achievement of my years participating in antique cars.”
AACA CEO Steve Moskowitz, who was also the chairman for the Auburn AACA event said, “Many of the competing owners remarked that the Buick was most deserving, though any car nominated for the Zenith Award is a winner. Our Grand Nationals and the Zenith competition is a singular event bringing together the finest cars in the country.”
During Saturday’s Grand Nationals, thousands of visitors strolled through more than 380 of the finest antique cars from a 1903 Ford Model A Runabout to a 1994 Nissan 300ZX Coupe, and everything in between. Only the best-of-the-best could compete in this show – every car had already been shown at multiple AACA Nationals and won multiple awards including their Senior Award. AACA was also very proud to host the Rolls-Royce Owners Club (RROC) in Auburn this year. This tradition of hosting another National car club at AACA’s Auburn event only started a few years ago, but has already helped build stronger bonds between the different car communities.
Click here to view the AACA Zenith Award program listing all of the cars in the competition.
Click here to view the winners list from the AACA Grand Nationals show.
For more information on AACA, judging guidelines, National Awards or National events, visit www.aaca.org.
