Concours D'Elegance Of America At St. John's - Events Begin
July 25, 2013
CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE OF AMERICA AT ST. JOHN’S
Celebrating Excellence in Automobile History and Design
By Steve Purdy
Photos By Gary Purdy and Bob Benko
TheAutoChannel.com
Michigan Bureau
For those who want to immerse themselves in automobile history and
schmooze with those fortunate folks who own and manage the most prestigious
collections of classic and collectable cars, motorcycles and other things
vehicular in the world your chance is coming up next week, culminating on
Sunday, July 28th. Aficionados will know the Concours d’Elegance of
America at St. John’s as the successor to the famous Meadow Brook
Concours d’Elegance that charmed show-goers for more than 30 years at
one of the Detroit regions favorite auto-baron mansions. It now happens at
the St. John’s Conference Center and golf course – formerly a
Catholic Seminary – in Plymouth, a western suburb of Detroit.
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Beginning with a luxurious induction dinner for the Automotive Hall
of Fame on Thursday evening the activities fill the entire weekend
including a celebration of automobile art, as special show of Italian cars,
a high-end RM Auction of classic and collectable cars, a motoring tour,
concerts, seminars and other activities leading to the exhibit of 275
special cars on Sunday that includes a presentation of historic fashions
called Mode du Concours.
The Automotive Hall of Fame in nearby Dearborn began honoring the
movers and shakers of the automobile industry in the 1940s. Browsing
through that museum you’ll find an endless stream of familiar names
and the often-surprising stories that go with them. This year’s
honorees include industry mogul “Maximum Bob” Lutz, father of
automobile design, Harley Earl, Center for Automotive Research founder
David Cole and racing icon Sir Jackie Stewart.
Throughout the weekend you’ll be able to peruse some of the
finest automobile fine art in the world by Tom Hale, Charlie Maher, Daniel
Brown, Gerald Freeman, Jay Koka, Steven Macy, Dan McCrary, Tony Sikorski,
David Snyder, Francois Bruere (this year’s poster artist) and Alex
Buchan. Most of these artists are members of the Automotive Fine Art
Society and represent the best of that art genre.
RM Auctions of Ontario present some of the finest classic car
auctions around the world and here at St. John’s they will host a
preview of offerings on Friday evening with auction beginning on Saturday
at 11 AM. More than 80 cars and motorcycles will cross the block including
a 1929 Deusenberg Model J Dual-Cowl Phaeton valued at close to a million
dollars.
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Car Selection Committee chairman, Brian Joseph, and his exceptional
team created and filled nearly two-dozen classes of vehicles including: a
class of cars from 1905 that either competed or could have competed in the
early London to Brighton Race; a “Gas Light Class” of cars from
1906 to 1914; a class called “Detroit Iron” representing the
Detroit-made luxury cars from the early 1930s; a Prewar European class;
Post-War Sports Cars; modern “Supercars”; “Amazing Race
Cars” class with racers back to a 1907 Fiat; “Electric
Cars” from the very beginning with an 1889 Edison through more modern
cars like the GM Impact and current electric as well; a “Great
Race” class for cars that have competed in that epic rally; and a
class of “Dealer Supercars,” primarily muscle cars of the 60s
and 70s altered and sold by specialty dealers around the country.
That is but a sampling of the classes being assembled for the Sunday
Concours d’Elegance at St. Johns. Check their Website for full
details.
If there were just one car show on your calendar for the season,
this ought to be it.
For details on the Concours d’Elegance of America see:
www.concoursusa.org
For details on the Automotive Hall of Fame and its event see:
www.automotivehalloffame.org
We hope to see you there.
©Steve Purdy, Shunpiker
