"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."
"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