Article and photos by Carl Jones, Carl Jones Photography
It’s been a brutal winter here in Michigan, but after a snowy and cold winter the cars are beginning to come out. The weekend of April 25, I took the time to visit the Lingenfelter Collection Spring Open House at their facility in Brighton, Michigan, as they opened their doors for charity. The Lingenfelter name is synonymous with Corvette performance mods, and other GM performance products.
I’ve heard about the massive car collection that Ken Lingenfelter holds, but on this day, I experienced it with my own eyes. I arrived to Lingenfelter Collection about thirty minutes early, but thanks to somewhat of a mini Cars & Coffee, I was able to subdue some of the anticipation by exploring the vehicles outside. With my camera gear by my side, I was ready to shoot some cars.
Once it was time to enter, I was quickly overcome with amazement as I stepped into the first section of the massive 40,000 square foot showroom space, which consisted of three separate rooms. The first room contained a variety of exotics and modern performance cars. Mr. Ligenfelter recently purchased a http://www.dupontregistry.com/autos/results/ferrari/laferrariFerrari LaFerrari, and it was probably at the top of the “must see” list; those that entered moved swiftly to that corner of the room. Though the LaFerrari was the star of the show, there were other notable exotics, like the Lamborghini Reventon #12, Bugatti Veyron, Ford GT, an assortment of Ferraris and the powerful Ligenfelter Z06 Corvettes.
The second room contained about forty plus Corvettes from the earliest model year to the most current, and everything in between. This was a room I fell in love with immediately, and one of those things where the phrase “seeing is believing” holds true. The sheer beauty of a pastel turquoise and cream 1957 Corvette Roadster was worth it alone. Since I was one of the first few people in the door, there were minimal crowds in the Corvette room, which allowed me to get great perspectives on camera.
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Once I was able to pull myself away from the classic and modern Corvettes, I headed to the last room to check out the classic muscle cars. This room was predominately loaded with early model General Motors muscle, but a pair of a Shelby GT500 Mustangs (1967 and 2010) from the blue oval demanded attention. Some of the other highlights were a 1970s Dodge Challenger Hemi R/T, 2010 LTA Camaro Concept Car, 1970 Buick Grand National and a 2000 Plymouth Prowler, just to name a few.
With a collection of over 150 vehicles, the Lingenfelter Collection is definitely an automotive photographer’s dream, and anyone with an opportunity to spend some one on one time shooting these vehicles should consider himself or herself lucky.
I look forward to the next open house as well as the first official Cars & Coffee of the season!
Be sure to visit Carl Jones’ website at www.CarlJonesPhotography.com, and like him on Facebook to see more of his work, as well as his final shot from the Phase One Camera and Light Painting Workshop here at the duPont REGISTRY.
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