John Lyons (philanthropist)

John William 'Jake' Lyons Jr. was born in Greenwich, Connecticut on August 10, 1964 to John William 'Bill' Lyons (May 20, 1925 - May 24, 2006) and Grace Mary Lyons (December 28, 1928 - April 3, 1976). He is one of ten children. He is the founder and former vice-chairman of the Newport, Rhode Island Concours d'Elegance, a published automotive magazine writer and a collector and restorer of automobiles.

Education

After graduating from Greenwich High School, he enrolled at Mitchell College in New London, Connecticut, graduating with a degree in liberal arts. He then attended Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire, graduating with a degree in business finance. He married Jessica Green of New York City in 1994 and they lived in Greenwich until 1995 when they moved to Wilton, Connecticut. The Lyons lived there until 2005 when they moved with their three children to West Hartford, Connecticut to found the Hartford Concours d'Elegance.

Career

Lyons began working for MCI in January 1987 and later moved into the paging industry, where he worked for nine years. In 1997, John was named District Manager of Nextel Communications in New York City. On August 10, 2005 he retired from the telecomunications industry to begin a successful career producing vintage automobile shows for charity.

Fundraising contributions

09:46 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 1, 2007

By Peter C.T. Elsworth

Journal Staff Writer

In Class 14a European race cars, this 1967 Bizzarrini P538 won the “People’s Choice Award.” The Providence Journal / Kris Craig NEWPORT -- There was something for everyone at the William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. Concours d’Elegance over the weekend — a tony Newport Society dinner honoring former race drivers Dan Gurney and Sir Stirling Moss, a black tie ball, some 40 historic race cars and another 140 vintage cars competing in the Concours.

Best in Show was awarded to a 1937 maroon Bugatti Type 57C owned by collector Malcolm Pray of Greenwich, Conn. It was the same car that won at the Greenwich Concours in early June.

At that time, Pray said restoring the car had involved more time, money and frustration than he had bargained for. Asked Sunday whether he was now happy with the car, he said: “Yes, right this minute, but not five minutes ago when I couldn’t start it.” He had been asked to drive it past the judges’ stand, but he said he flooded the engine.

Gallery See more from the Concours D'Elegance in Newport The Concours was hosted by the Preservation Society of Newport County, the first that it has organized. There was some speculation that, with time, it might rank the top Concourses — at Amelia Island, Fla., in March, Meadow Brook, Mich., in early August and the reigning Pebble Beach, Calif., in late August.

“To create a great Concours requires very serious solicitation of great car collectors,” said Stephen Brauer, whose 1932 Rolls Royce Phantom II Henley won the Vanderbilt Award in the Rolls Royce Class. He added that he thought there were “30 to 40 great cars at the show.”

They included a blue and white 1939 Delahaye 135 M Roadster (also owned by Pray), a 1938 Alfa Romeo Touring Spyder, a number of massive Gatsby-style Dusenbergs, a 1934 Packard 1106 Runabout Speedster that was first owned by Clark Gable, a 1931 Bugatti Type 55 Roadster, David Letterman’s 1965 Ferrari 500 Superfast II and a bunch of XK120 Jaguars from the 1950s.

In addition, a number of Shelby Cobras and sportsters (a number belonging to Jamestown collector Paul Andrews) were on display, including a pair of 1965 Shelby GT350Rs, one white with blue stripes, the other blue with white stripes that had raced as a team 30 years ago.

“I’m very happy,” said founder Cynthia Gibson following the awards ceremony Sunday. “We’ve made our statement, we’re here to stay.”

The cars were parked under enormous tents on the grounds of The Breakers (the race cars) and Chateau-sur-Mer (vintage cars), both of which are owned by the Preservation Society. Being under canvas did not allow them to appear at their best, but did protect them from any rain that might have developed. Happily, the weather was perfect all weekend.

Sea breezes kept the proceedings reasonably cool and vendors selling a variety of merchandise that included food, books, pictures and even dog collars (this was Newport, after all) provided additional entertainment.

Manny Souza’s 1908 Alco Tourer won first place in the Veteran Class Pre-WWI. Souza, of Rehoboth, Mass., said the car, which was built in Providence, had just come out of a massive restoration and was certainly remarkable for its purple paint job.

“Blurple,” he said, describing the color as a combination of blue and purple. “My wife, Lucy, chose it and everyone has commented on it.”

A green 1951 Crosley Super Hot Shot owned by Juliette McLennan won the Children's’ Choice Award. The little car is well known in Newport as “the mechanical frog.”

“I tootle around in it with my yellow labs,” she said. “This is not one of the great (cars),” she added laughing.

Tom Coady’s 1953 Cunningham C-3 won a second in the Closed Sports Car Post-War (1952-1959). He said the marque originated with American Briggs Cunningham who “wanted to build an American car to win the Le Mans,” which he did in 1952, finishing fourth after personally driving 20 of the 24 hours.

Dean Edmonds said he had lusted after his black-and-red 1931 Bugatti Type 55 sportster for 20 years before buying it at Sotheby’s in London in the early 1990s.

The former physics professor — he was part of the team that developed the Atomic Clock — said he loved the combination of art and engineering, noting that it was designed by Ettore Bugatti’s son Jean. He added that it had won its class at Pebble Beach in 1999.

In addition, a collection of about 40 race cars built and/or driven by American driving ace Gurney were on display at The Breakers, including the car in which he won the Grand Prix of Belgium on June 18, 1967. It is the only Formula One car ever built and driven to a Grand Prix victory by an American.

Also on display was the “Birdcage Maserati.” Gurney teamed with Moss in 1960 to drive the famed Maserati Tipo 61 to victory in the grueling Nurburgring (Germany) 1,000 kilometer race. It was known as the Birdcage because its frame consisted of some 200 aluminum tubes welded together, making it both rigid and light.

Gurney, 76, said this year is the 40th anniversary of two highlights of his racing career. One was his aforementioned Formula One victory in Belgium on June 18. The other was his win one week earlier, along with American ace A. J. Foyt, of the 24 Hours of the Le Mans endurance race in a Ford GT40 Mark IV.

The victory marked the second year in a row that Ford won the famous endurance race, having finally wrested the title from Ferrari the previous year. Ferrari had previously established a dominating record, having won Le Mans six times in a row from 1960 to 1965.

Gurney also claims a precedent at Le Mans in 1967 that has now become part of racing tradition. Celebrating the win with champagne, he suddenly shook the bottle and sprayed the crowd with fizzy foam — just as NASCAR ace Tony Stewart did yesterday after winning the Allstate 400 in Indianapolis.

Moss, 77, who raced from 1948 to 1962, won nearly 200 of the 525 races he entered, including 16 Formula one Grand Prix. He placed second in the Driver’s Championship four times in a row from 1955 to 1958.

Known as “the greatest driver never to win the World Championship,” he missed the honor by only one point in 1958. Known for his sportsmanship, Moss lost out to Mike Hawthorne after Moss helped him avoid a penalty in the 1958 Portuguese Grand Prix.

Apart from his dominance on the Formula One circuit, one of Moss’ most memorable victories was the 1955 Mille Miglia, the Italian 1,597 kilometer open-road race, which he won in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR in a record 10 hours, 8 minutes and half an hour ahead of teammate Juan Manuel Fangio.

“It’s a fantastic atmosphere and great to see so many old friends,” said Moss. “I hope the general public likes it so much they will carry on with it.”

Ace Janet Guthrie agreed. “I’ve not seen this many really good cars together like this. It’s a world-class spectacle and I’ve seen people I’ve not seen in 30 years.”

“The ambiance is staggering,” said three-time Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford, who was Honorary Chairman of last year’s Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. Rutherford works in management with the Indy Racing League.

Other famous race drivers attending the weekend’s festivities included Richard Attwood, Skip Barber, Bob Bondurant, Geoff Boss, Nick Craw, James Gubelmann, William Gubelmann, David Hobbs, Luigi Chinetti, Jr., David Piper, Mathieu Plumb, Peter Windsor and George Wintersteen.

“There’s never been a better first year for a Concours,” said Tom Fair, who is retiring from the Bentley franchise at Inskip in Warwick to set up an independent consulting business. He added that Newport, with its extensive tourist facilities, was a perfect venue.

At the same time, John Sweeney, the former executive director of the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Mass., said more would be involved than just location.

“A lot of these events, sadly, come down to economics,” he said. “At the end of the day, did they make money, can they make money, can they put up the same amount of money next year? Pebble Beach started small but has had nearly 60 years to establish itself.”

Lyons purchased his first classic automobile, a 1962 Chrysler New Yorker, in 1982 and has owned over 40 such vehicles since then. His passion for the hobby, combined with a desire to contribute, brought about his first Concours event in 2005. Held on a former Hartford landfill site, the Hartford Concours d'Elegance raised tens of thousands of dollars for three charitable organizations, including the Connecticut Children's Medical Center; the Leukemia Society (Lyons lost a sister to the disease in 1991); and Riverfront Recapture, an organization committed to the revitalization of Hartford's parks and recreation areas.

During this time, Lyons began restoring an extremely rare Chrysler 300G 'code 281' coupe. Because of the significance of this car, he was asked to write about the restoration in a series of articles for "Car Collector Magazine". He has also written for several Concours publications and several automobile auction event programs.

Following the success of the Hartford Concours d'Elegance, Lyons partnered with Mark Hurwitz to launch the Newport, Rhode Island, Concours d'Elegance. The inaugural event was held the weekend of May 26, 2006 at Astor's Beachwood Mansion and raised money for the Jimmy Fund; Heifer Project International; and the Paul Newman Charity, The Hole In The Wall Gang Camps.

Seeing the success of a Concours event in Rhode Island, The Preservation Society of Newport County (PS) attempted unsuccessfully to launch their own show naming Cynthia Gibson as 'Chairman' of the Vanderbilt Concours modeled heavily after the Newport Concours. Gibson, the self proclaimed 'Our Lady of the Cars' did not have much luck producing Concours events losing a small fortune for the PS and causing the cancellation of their show after just one year. After a bitter separation from the PS, she unsuccessfully attempted to launch a third show in Newport also inspired by the Newport Concours but was turned down by the city council remembering all too well the problems she had caused with her previous effort.

After a protracted legal battle with his former partner, Lyons divested his interest in the show leaving Hurwitz to run the show alone. In just over two years, he helped raised over $100,000 for charity through direct donations and paid use of non-profit facilities.

Lyons is now back in Connecticut consulting for Worldwide Auctioneers, one of the big-four high-end catalog vintage car auction companies.

References

*"Car Collector Magazine" July 2005 through December, 2006
*"Hartford Courant" July 17, 2005
*"Providence Journal" [1 May00, May 3, 27 May, 2006
*"Newport Daily News" May 31, 2006
*"Old Cars Weekly", 2006
*"Hemmings Classic Car" February, 2007