Bob Lutz (aviator shades) and his Riley MPH.
A gathering of two hundred forty fascinating people,
who all arrived in interesting cars…
David E. Davis Jr. invited me to join him on the staff of Automobile magazine in Ann Arbor. It was an opportunity to work with my publishing hero. Tracy and I had owned our house in Costa Mesa for about a year when the phone call came. We flew to Michigan the next weekend, accepted his offer and put our California home up for sale the following week.
We loved Ann Arbor. We found a great, 2-story plus full basement house on 2 acres spotted with hundred-year-old trees just outside of town for little more than our California cottage. We were there for a year when, unable to find car guys, I called my old Ferrari friend Fred Leydorf to help me organize a Saturday morning car guy breakfast from his phone list.
Casa Crane from road: Front row from far left: two Mercedes-Benz 300SLs, white gullwing and a red roadster, Aston V-8 drophead, Ferrari 512TR, Lotus Elan S2, Roush prototype Mustang. Second row from behind the Ferrari, a very original DeTomaso Pantera, a Jaguar E-type roadster, Cunningham C-3. In front of the E-type you can make out a Porsche Abarth Carrera and behind that an Aston DB Mk II. On right side of drive way is an MG Midget vintage race car, two Porsche 356 Outlaw coupes and the Lutz La Salle convertible coupe. I can’t remember all the owners, so I didn’t name any.
I told Fred that if I couldn’t find any car guys to talk to I was heading back to California. Fred introduced me to a terrific group and First Saturday breakfasts were a success. It was a guy thing. Tracy was not happy. She was at least as much of a car person as anyone at the breakfast.
The Cranes with Tracy’s ’28
Chrysler Le Mans replica
“Bring them here,” she announced one morning. “We have room. Have them bring their cars.” And so it began. Invitations went out for the last Sunday in September. DavidE suggested I call Bob Lutz, who lived around the corner from us, and gave me a telephone number. I called and Bob answered the phone. Good number. He was president of Chrysler Corporation.
“Great. Sure,” was his reply after a very brief description of the gathering. The party ran for 11 years and he never missed one. Denise (Mrs. Lutz) would drive the big Cunningham C-3 and Bob would drive one of his other cars, like the Riley MPH or his Citroen Big 15 Traction Avant or the Aston Martin DB2 he found in a shop in Zurich and discovered it was the car his dad bought new.
“Casa Crane Noncours de Enthousiasme” became an important day on the local car guy’s calendar. We shared. I mailed the invitations and Tracy did everything that made it a party.
Bob Sirna’s Reventlow Scarab (Crane got to drive on the 100 tour) and the Crane Aston Martin DB2 (the affordable Alfa 6C 2500!?). In front of the Aston is the ’39 Chevrolet Carretera coupe that Juan Manuel Fangio left to David E. Davis Jr..
Casa Crane from the house: From left to right first row: White Aston DB Mk III, Ferrari 328 GTS, Tracy Crane’s Alfa Giulia Sprint (now red), Autocraft Cobra, Alfa Romeo Junion Z, MG TC, Westfield 7 with DOHC Toyota engine, Lotus Elan S1 with Ford BDA engine, Abarth 1300, Ferrari 275 GTB, Fiat X1-9. Between the rows are: Porsche Turbo, 1960 Cadillac Convertible and Porsche Abarth Carrera. Second row from right to left: Mazda Miata, Triumph TR3, Jaguar XK 140, Jaguar E-type, Dino 246, ’55 Ford Crown Victoria (Lucille), Ford Torino Cobra Jet, Jaguar XKS, Pantera, Crane Ferrari 330 GT 2+2, Lutz Cunningham C-3.
At about year nine Bob called and asked if we wanted to have it on his 200 acres since we seemed to be out-growing my 2 acres. “No,” I replied. “It’s our party, we will deal with the cars any way we can.”
“Of course. I’m sorry, I just wanted to help if I could.”
Three days later he called back. “How about this. We have breakfast at Casa Crane from 9:00 a.m. to noon, then do a 100-mile run through the country and end up at Lutz Farm for chili and beer.”
The Lutz garage for chili and beer. Bob’s Riley MPH is in the foreground.
“Perfect.” Thus was born “The Casa Crane to Lutz Farm Tour of the Twisty Bits of Four Counties”. Bob got to show the guys his great cars and garages and the drive was MEMORABLE!! Alfa Romeos, Aston Martins, Chevy muscle, Chrysler muscle Ferraris, Ford Torino Cobra Jet, Loti, MGs, Morgans Porsches, Roush prototypes, Triumphs, Vipers of all kinds, hot rods, and big classics. I always described the gathering as 240 fascinating people who all arrived in interesting cars.
What a special event! Thank you for sharing. It is always great when people from such a broad spectrum can get together and just enjoy the automobile.
This is the second article in this series that has inspired extreme jealousy in me! The first was when I realized I was born a decade too late to have found the really desirable prewar and immediate postwar cars at affordable prices. This one made me realize that I have not been hanging around with the right people! But there is another message here, which I have noticed in numerous car clubs. It seems to be an Iron Rule of the Universe that these clubs and events are really the inspiration of just one person. Sometimes he can get others to help, and sometimes this can work for a while, but when that person leaves or just gets burned out, it just isn’t the same. We have a number of examples in car collecting where just one person made something happen. This is one example, another is Steve Earle starting the Monterey Historics. We had one here in the San Francisco area: for ten years or so a local guy procured guest speakers for a monthly dinner called “The Candy Store” which were the “Who’s Who” of the car world. But just like the British cars that used to be everywhere, one day it disappeared, like the dinosaurs. Usually, it all comes down to just one guy who wants to make something happen. We should all take note when this happens, because it doesn’t last forever.
Brandy Elitch
Healdsburg, CA
Larry – you bring back sweet memories – in September of 2000, my son and I had the pleasure of attending one of your events as part of Martin Swig’s Cannonball Classic. In addition to wonderful cars, good chat and superb breakfast, I recall you pulled out several jackstands and Dan Radowicz performed some necessary service on a couple cars (mine being one) in your driveway!
Thanks for your hospitality and for a great series!
tom innes, scottsdale, AZ
The “good old days” continue to be re-lived through generous people like Larry and Tracy Crane, Steve and Debbie Earle, and Martin and Esta Swig! Larry, thanks for sharing these fabulous memories! The example that you and Tracy give us — and these vivid memories you are sharing — inspire us to keep the wire wheels turning!
John Clinard, Irvine, CA
Larry —
What a treat to find you writing for VeloceToday. This article brought back a bunch of memories of our time in Ann Arbor getting to know so many friends in that great community of car guys and gals. I’ve still got my Casa Crane window card on the garage wall as a reminder of the breakfast-chili runs.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Doggone it, when I grow up I want to be Larry Crane!
Larry, you’ve lived the car life I have dreamed of all my life. Thanks for sharing.
Greg Perigo, Fort Wayne, Indiana
That Fangio´s ’39 chevy coupe must be a replica of the original that He run in that year in the “Gran Premio Argentino de Carretera”. The Original is in the “Museo Juan Manuel Fangio” in the city of Balcarce, where he was born.
Dad said something about you writing again, thought I’d look you up.
Great articles! Hope things are going well.
The Fangio Chevy is a replica. It was built by Toto Fangio, Juan’s brother who built the originals—there were more than one of those too. During the presentation at the museum in Balcarce, Toto drove the car in with an enormous smile of pride. DavidE had an aluminum valve cover created with “Toto” milled into the top.
Regarding a Cars ( Wife), I recently sold a 73 alfa GTV that was owned by R&T, Cam Diamandis. I was curious after reading about lary’s wifes job as to why R&T might have owned the Alfa. It originally came from Beach Imports in Newport Beach Ca. Thanks Peter
R&T and Peter Bohr (R&T’s pre-owned editor—no, the cars) thought it would be cool to have long term tests of pre-owned cars we all liked. Peter is an Alfa fan, so this might have been one of the editorial “used” sports cars.
Great stuff! A first Saturday gathering still happens year ’round in near-by Ypsilanti and it’s wonderful fun. I regularly make the drive up from Akron, Ohio to attend.
Larry, the article and photos brought back a lot of great memories of your Casa Crane automotive gatherings. Every one of them was a hoot and Nan and I never missed any of them (you neglected to mention that it was also your birthday weekend). We never knew who…or what was going to make an appearance. You were a catalyst for encouraging the Ann Arbor car culture to come out of the closet and enjoy their cars and introduced a lot of “facinating” car people to each other that are still good friends today. We miss you.
Some people like bowling, some baseball…for my husband it’s cars. Although he knows plenty of real car guys, no means via a ‘leage’ to gather once a week to dedicate to their sport, so they orchestrated one themselves.
Now, they gather once a week, purely for fun, and tool on each others cars. Last winter rebuilt a 66 Vette, tooled on a 65 alfa an MGB, some tooling on the GTO, and now they jointly purchased a Mini that was in pieces that they are putting back together. They deemed it CarNight, track their projects on a smugmug website so they can share with their other friends and have a great time with it.
Too bad there are not more gatherings like these.
Well, Larry, I’m still smarting over why I was never invited to your breakfast! Probably cause I was a lowly ‘ad guy’ at Automobile….hurumph!
Larry:
Great to see your musings. I’m sorry that we’ve lost touch, but ironically enough, we’re now down in Williamsburg, Va. (where this site is based!), and I’m now driving an F355 Berlinetta because I never forgot your characterization of the car the first time you drove it! We both marveled over the notion that here was a production car with 5 valves per cylinder, and an 8,500 rpm redline! Simply unbelievable….
If you read this post, drop me a note so we can reconnect @ bobweber@cox.net.
Also, we are hosting a Ferrari exhibition at the Williamsburg Winery on May 2nd and 3rd, and you should come. The featured speaker at Saturday’s dinner is none other than dear friend Derek Daly.
Cheers,
Bob
amitiee de france enfin retrouvera bientot mon ami gilbert
mon ami je te retrouve enfin a bientot gilbert