A special exhibit at the Sloan Museum Auto Fair this past weekend showcased an era when cars were expected not only to go fast, but to look great doing it.

At Motor City Garage, we certainly aren’t the first ones to notice that aesthetically, the race cars of the ’30s to the ’50s represent a sort of golden age in American motorsports..Truly, these are some of the best-looking race cars ever built.

In modern race cars with their space-age materials and wind-tunnel aerodynamics, function trumps form. But back in the day, cars were engineered on the theory that if it looked good, it was good. A quality race car was a well-turned out race car, with careful construction and detailing. If you appreciate machinery, these cars remain a treat to the eye to this day.

A few of our favorites at the Sloan Museum show: Dave Schleppi’s immaculate 1960 Chenowth Special (right), a typical offset Indy roadster of its time but for the fact that it was designed from scratch around a Chevy V8 rather than an Offy; and Butch and Alice Fork’s 1946 Kurtis Kraft-Offy midget. To add to the speedway flavor, the Sloan people invited several Indy 500 pace cars to the show. These cars and others from the exhibit are included in the slide show gallery below.