Celebrating The Wedge At The Concours D’Elegance Of America

This past weekend on a gorgeous summer day more than 200 classic cars and thousands of fans of them came together for the 42nd Concours d’Elegance of America in Plymouth, Mich. The event which has been held at the Inn at St. Johns for the past decade usually happens out on the golf course. Unfortunately, a heavy thunderstorm swept through the area the night before and flooded parts of the course making it impossible to bring the machines onto the grass. As a result, the display of machines took place in the parking lot. This event always has the usual classes you’ll find at such shows including jazz age, pre-war, post-war foreign and American. But this particular show has always included some unusual classes including this year’s designer class “The Wedge.”

The wedge class is special to me personally because it represents my formative years as an automotive enthusiast. It was a design trend that began at the beginning of the 1970s and largely petered out by the 1990s. It began in earnest with a pair of Italian concepts from 1970, the Ferrari Modulo and the Lancia Stratos Zero. The Modulo was acquired from the Pininfarina design house several years ago by collector James Glickenhaus who has exhibited several of his cars here in prior years but wasn’t in attendance for the 2021 event.

The Lancia concept was conceived by Pinifarina’s cross town rival Bertone and its designer Marcello Gandini. In some ways, the Stratos is even more radical than the Modulo and it sits only 33-inches tall. The original concept is owned by a European collector and it makes periodic appearances at shows and in special museum exhibits. However, in the 1980s, a replica was created for use in the Michael Jackson Moonwalker video. That reproduction which was at the show looks like the original on the outside although the interior doesn’t match the original.

Through the 1970s and into the 1980s some real icons incorporated the wedge theme in a variety of ways that have made them memorable to this day. This includes the Triumph TR8 (aka “The Shape of Things to Come!), the Lotus Esprit as immortalized by James Bond, the Aston Martin Lagonda which featured the first ever touch controls and CRT displays in a car and of course, the Delorean DMC12. But no wedge group would be complete without another Gandini creation and the winner of best in class, the Lamborghini Countach.

Check out the gallery for images of all the wedge machines in this diverse group.