Over the weekend we made a road trip down to Vail Colorado to take a look at all the cars that participated in the Colorado Grand this year. The event takes participants on a thousand mile journey through the mountains of Colorado. Money raised goes to local charities and after it is all done they have a car show called the Concours d’Non Elegance complete with road grime.

We had our own Grand of sorts, but we did our thousand miles over two days instead of five in something a little more modern. There were plenty of deer to dodge in Wyoming, but once we hit the twisties we were glad we had brought a Miata. The drive down was just as much fun as the show, so we can’t imagine what it was like for these guys in their pre-60 sports cars. We loved the look of this big Healey which was the first car to greet us upon arrival.

Most of the cars on the Grand have interesting pasts and ALL are expensive. Standouts included Tommy Lee’s Speedster which was originally built by Kurtis It was basically a hot rod with a racing engine disguised as a Cord. The blue paint and steel wheels made it look tame, but the leather hood strap hinted at something serious under the hood. The car was almost lost at the scrapyard, but luckily someone was smart enough to save it.

Real men drive Bentleys and we are not talking about the sissy ones cruising around today. This is a real Bentley, built by W.O. himself. The engine is big and the body is made of fabric. There were so many little details on this car that we could have stared at it for hours. There were plenty of other fine machines to look at though so we moved on.

And yes, there were even a few barn finds in attendance! This Cobra came out of a garage in Utah. The second owner had stashed it behind a wall he built because he was sick of people asking if it was for sale every time he raised the garage door. This Cobra was showing a little more than road grime as it didn’t look like it had been cleaned up since the discovery.

It was a great time and hopefully one of these years we will be able to ride along. Check out the gallery below for more photos. There are plenty of classic car rallies each year, but the Colorado Grand is the grandest of them all!