19th annual Ypsilanti Orphan Car Show

Nash, Packard, Studebaker, Reo, Hupmobile, Pierce-Arrow, Franklin, Graham Paige, Duesenberg, Marmon, Cord, Kaiser, DeSoto, Edsel, Frontenac, Ann Arbor, Willys, Overland, Hudson, Crosley and the list continues.

And more recently: Mercury (and its Canadian cousin, Monarch), Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Plymouth.

And don’t forget the imports: Citroen, Triumph, Lancia, Austin Healey, MG and others.

They are the automotive orphans, automakers either no longer in business or no longer selling cars in the United States. They are gone, but not forgotten, at least not in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where the annual Orphan Car Show is probably the best of its ilk, each fall bringing such orphan cars and their owners together for a Sunday morning and afternoon at Riverside Park.

There is one exemption to the strictly enforced definition of orphan that governs this gathering: Corvairs are welcome, even though the Chevrolet division of General Motors continues to produce cars. But Corvairs have a special place in Ypsilanti. This is where they were assembled, and where they still are beloved, so they’ve been grandfathered into the show as sort of a homecoming celebration.

The 2015 Orphan Car Show was the 19th such event. Randy Mason and Jack Miller started the thing — they were tired of Hudsons and Studebakers being parked on the fringes of other car shows. The orphan showcase now is presented by the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum and dozens of volunteers who are unwilling to let so much automotive history fade from memory.

Yesterday, we shared an Eye Candy on the featured class this year — convertibles from various automakers. Today, we offer another gallery, this one on the other cars and categories.

Photos by Larry Edsall