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Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival
Pebble Beach. Amelia Island. Meadowbrook. Burn Foundation. These might be considered the Concours d’Elegance Big Four according to Paul Doerring. “We’re in that ballpark now,” he said. Doerring is board chairman and event director for the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival, which celebrates its seventh anniversary this month.
From its humble beginnings less than a decade ago - and following a few stalled attempts prior to that - Hilton Head Island’s event has risen to be considered among the elite of some 50 Concours events held annually around the world.
The seventh annual Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival takes place October 30 through November 2 at the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn. This year’s theme is a celebration of the history of the automobile with Brass Era (pre-1916) cars as the Honored Marque. On Sunday, the brass classes will trace the beginnings of the automobile by featuring at least one car from each year between 1899 and 1915. Other celebrations throughout the weekend-long event include the 60th anniversary of Porsche, the 100th anniversary of the American Grand Prize and the 100th. anniversaries of the Ford Model T and General Motors Corporation.
Concours d’Elegance is a French term meaning “Parade of Elegance.” The event originated in Paris in the early 1900s, but it was not always an automotive showcase. Early incarnations were exhibits of the latest fashion collections at which participants paraded down the boulevard on foot, bedecked in their most superlative finery.
Concours evolved into a motor show as exhibitors first began showing up in luxurious horse-drawn coaches and later in motor carriages. The Concours d’Elegance made its American debut in 1950 in Pebble Beach, Calif, and today there are several dozen shows worldwide that have adopted the Concours name, but only a handful can be considered elite. The Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance is the last show of the season on the US circuit, and has quietly climbed the ladder to elite status in its relatively short existence.
