The Auto Channel-Sports Car International Magazine

Ain't It Grand?
Colorado Grand Participants

The Colorado Grand celebrates its 10th anniversary as an annual Rocky Mountain High.

I really couldn't wipe the smile off my face. I was driving alone in a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Coupe through a magnificent red rock canyon deep in the Colorado Rockies. The temperature was perfect, skies overhead a brilliant blue with a billowy cumulonimbus clouds buildng on the horizon. An occasional hawk swooped from perches high in the rocks, hunting for thermals. I had removed the side windows from the Gullwing doors, and roaring past rock walls hugging the roadside, the deep-throated bark of the big inline six echoed back at me. This legendary Mercedes was my mistress Helga for the next few days, and with the road climbing and descending, zigging left, then right, then left again, Helga was begging for a flogging, and a flogging was what she got.

I wasn't being mean to this old gal, just driving her like she was designed to be driven. In that sense I didn't differ much from the rest of the 115-plus entries who entered a wonderfully eclectic group of valuable, rare and sometimes one-of-a-kind vintage sports and racing cars in the Colorado Grand.

Each entry carries an official Colorado Grand license, making them road legal, even though many are true race cars, carrying only minimal lighting and a horn. In the Grand, it's not uncommon to see a famous race car from the old days zooming past, perhaps even a famous driver or two.

This year's event wandered from Beaver Creek to Steamboat Springs, on to Grand Junction, then to Crested Butte, ending up four days and about a thousand miles later back in Beaver Creek.

Along the way, the gracious towns of Walden, Meeker, Ridgeway and Salida provided lunches, and basically turned out to give "Genders" a warm welcome.

The Grand was born from a simple rally among Bugatti owners that was held in 1985 as an informal get-together over a planned route through the Rockies. By 1988, it had reached the point of becoming bigger and more organized, and the Colorado State Patrol became involved, both to insure the safety of participants and the public, and as beneficiaries for its Widows and Orphans fund.

Ten years later, the Grand has raised over $1,000,000 for those less fortunate, along with a number of scholarships for deserving area students.

The event sees so many notable machines that it's difficult to single any out, but certainly the Duesenberg Mormon Meteor, a car that held a 24-hour speed record for over 50 years, bears mention.

And out on the open road, I hooked up with Carl Eiberger and Mac Harley in their XK 120, and Jerry Seinfeld and Cliff Singer in Seinfeld's '59 Carrera Speedster. Yes, those are fast machines, but not fast enough to keep a Gullwing at bay.

At the end of the day, with the adrenaline and bubbly flowing, there was time to talk about all the fun along the way, and the many reasons why so many will be back on the Grand once again.

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