Peter Helck, car guy and artist in the same league as Normal Rockwell, and sharing a founding members duties with Norman as well, of the Famous Artists School.

"my interest in cars dates from childhood. I'm old enough to remember the automobile as a novelty, a rarity of sufficient interest to amaze and attract a swarm of youngsters whenever one came to a smoke-belching standstill on West 96th Street in New York City."

"My art schooling was of the standard type - drawing from antique casts, the nude figure, etc. - all unrelated to my love of cars. In 1913 this fascination got a substantial lift. I won the poster contest for Brooklyn's annual auto show and a job with a small firm engaged in advertising and press agentry. Its clients in both categories were automotive. I became submerged in the delightful atmosphere of auto race promotions."

"Drawing cars was my daily stint, made even more pleasurable by the $20 per week salary and the frequent glimpses of famous figures from New York's "Automobile Row. From then to now I suppose eighty percent of my professional work has involved automotives. I've had years of national campaigns for Packard, Republic, Ford, Mack, Chevrolet, and other highway haulers."

"But the occasions for picturing what the enthusiasts love to call "The Heroic age" or "The Golden age" of automobiling diminished with Detroit's policy of change or face-lifting with every fleeting year. This was sad stuff for an artist so irrevocably addicted to the early romantic periods of motoring. By 1926 I had already signified my interest in old cars and my hobby potential by acquiring a few elderly specimens like Mercedes, Renault and Locomobile."

it might explain his interest in vintage cars when you learn he had some, well, a collection of some

Found on http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2014/03/peter-helck-like-piece-of-music-some.html