ELKHART, IN — The JBS Collection, located in Elkhart, Indiana, is pleased to announce that owners Laura and Jack Boyd Smith Jr. are the winners of the 2023 Boca Raton Concours d’Elegance Automobile Collector of the Year award.
The award coincided with the 16th annual Boca Raton Concours d’Elegance classic car extravaganza, Feb. 24-26 in Boca Raton, Florida. The JBS Collection, given the honor of showing 15 cars at the Boca Concours, also took home the Chairman Award for its 1933 Dodge Brothers H44 Tow Truck.
Laura and Jack Boyd Smith Jr. featured several of the automobiles that have helped put The JBS Collection on the map in the world of classic automobiles; among them the 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton Convertible – originally-owned by Amelia Earhart and recently inducted into the National Historic Vehicles Register. The JBS Collection also presented a 1903 Clement 12/16 HP Rear-Entrance Tonneau and a 1933 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron – of which less than 20 remain in existence – at Boca Raton
Every single one of our cars comes with a pretty great story,” said Jack Boyd Smith Jr., “and my wife Laura and I are happy to serve as their custodians. We’re glad to be able to show them to the world and we’re so honored to have won the Automobile Collector of the Year award and the Chairman Award at Boca Raton. Most people who are collecting have been doing it for 20 or 30 or 40 years, or more…I’m a little over 10 years in, you could say I’m still catching up. So, we have a lot more work to do.”
More work to do for The JBS Collection means more work for LaVine Restorations, Inc., of Nappanee, Indiana, which has partnered with The JBS Collection on many of its most delicate restorations, including Earhart’s 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton Convertible. LaVine Restorations, a leader in the restoration space with over 40 years in the industry, was honored at Boca Raton with the 2023 Restoration Company of the Year award.
“It’s really been a unique partnership with them and I was happy to see LaVine Restorations get the award and be honored for the world-class work they do,” said Jack Boyd Smith Jr. “Vivian and Eric (LaVine) and their whole team have been incredible to work with over the years. It gives me so much pride knowing that, together, we’ve done some really great work. These types of awards don’t happen by accident.”
It has been a steady build of momentum for The JBS Collection. At the 2022 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, March 22 at Amelia Island, Florida, its Earhart 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton Convertible won the Class Award for American Classics 1933-1948 and The Hagerty Youth Award for American Classics. In May 2022, at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy, the Cord took Honorable Mention in (Class A) The Golden Age of Excellence: The Art Deco Era of Motor Car Design and it earned a special award for Most Sensitive Restoration.
On March 8, 2023, The Hagerty Drivers Foundation – in its collaboration with the Library of Congress – added the 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton Convertible to the National Historic Vehicles Register.
