At the very relaxed parking lot show we hold every Friday of the New England Concours d’Elegance weekend before the rally up to Stratton Mountain, we will often see a few cars that mysteriously don’t show up the rest of the weekend. Such was the case this year with this 1966 Oldsmobile 98 limousine that Larry Farrell of Staten Island, New York, brought up. It had enough headroom for a stovepipe hat and a pet giraffe, but its red paint and spotlamp had us scratching our heads – was it the world’s most opulent fire chief’s car? Funeral car for the extroverted?

We never caught up with Farrell, but he helpfully posted a sign with the car noting that it was originally painted black and built for the Kirk and Nice Funeral Home in Philadelphia by Cotner-Bevington, a professional car coachworks in Blytheville, Arkansas, which was at that time owned by Divco. Under the hood is a 365hp 425-cu.in. V-8.