Early in February, Steve Styers invited me to join him for a special visit to the Richard H. Driehaus auto collection in the near-west side of Chicago. Steve is a member of the Greater Illinois Region of the Classics Car Club of America, which organized this special viewing of the private auto collection.
Normally closed to the public, the Driehaus collection includes just under 70 vehicles, representing some of the best of American automotive design and engineering from the classic and post-war years. It was marvelous to see these old cars, many of them being quite rare. The 1948 Tucker “48” for example, of which only 50 were ever built, right here on Chicago’s south-west side. The oldest car was a 1903 Oldsmobile Model R, the famous “Curved Dash Olds”. The only racing car in the collection was a 1926 Miller/Locomobile Junior 8 Special, of which only two were ever made.
After viewing the cars for a couple of hours, we were invited to an appetizer buffet for lunch. Then we were treated to video and slide-show presentations of the 2020 Retromobile of Paris, Turn-of-the-Century lady’s fashions from a shop in downtown Paris, and the Chateau d’Compiegne Concept Cars show.
It was a neat opportunity to see really neat cars and meet some really neat people. Afterwards, Steve gave me a tour of the south-west side of Chicago, including the baking company where he used to work, and the very place where “Easy Eddie” O’Hare (Butch O’Hare’s father), was gunned down on Ogden Avenue. Thank you Steve for a really great day!
You can view each of the cars of the Driehaus collection on-line. There is also an interesting 5 minute video of the Driehaus collection by TV station WTTW.
