I've been to many car shows in the past, but they have all been "working-man's" car shows. These proletariat shows allow any entrant that meets the specific requirements to enter - from the great to the wretched. In contrast, the Cincinnati Concours d'Elegance is more bourgeoisie and is invite only, so this would be a good contrast.
Sunday came and disrupting the normal weekend schedule, SO and I headed off. There were several warnings about limited parking at Ault Park, where the show was being held. This is sad, one of the best things about a car show is the show outside of the show, where interesting cars driven to the event are intermingled with the Honda Civics and Ford Focuses (Foci?). A car event should be held where it can be actually driven to and there are plenty of places in the greater Cincinnati where this would be possible. But I guess as an invite-only event, bourgeoisie expectations are that it be held some place more discriminatory.
So SO and I headed toward the satellite parking with free shuttles to the event. SO's phone was set to "Avoid Interstates" and Google routed us via a very Garmin-esque moronic route. Traffic was minimal on a Sunday morning and it allowed us to see several "interesting" Cincinnati neighborhoods. I appreciate the wide-open spaces I am fortunate enough to live in.
Once at the satellite parking, with about 10x the number of parking volunteers as needed, we made our way onto a bus. The wait was short and we headed out toward Ault Park. En route, our bus driver misjudged the distance to the curb and violently abused the bus mirror with a lamp pole. Wires were cut loose, metal bent, and mirrors broken, ensuring many years of bad luck. We continued on until less than a half mile from the park, where our driver pulled over to allow a new bus to take us to the show. The wait was a bit aggravating and somewhat stupid since the bus basically had to go the park anyways at that point. It would have made much more sense to continue on and decommission the bus after dropping us off, but there are probably some bureaucratic rules that must be followed or something. Such is life in the world of public transportation. Our future in a Green New Deal is not looking rosy.
Once on the new bus, it was a very short jaunt to the show.
The show was just getting going when we got there. It also started to rain - not hard, but just enough to be annoying. The rain continued through the morning which was unfortunate since it kept some cars from showing up. It also meant there were lots of umbrellas which made the hoards of lookers take up more space (in fairness, ourselves included). Very often I saw pointy umbrella tips come dangerously close to shiny cars...
The show had two themes: Mid-Century Modern and 95 Years of MG. The Mid-Century Modern were up front and weren't what I was expecting. I anticipated Elvis, what was there was much more Gatsby. The Gatsby cars are some of the most imposing, rakishly long and ostentatious vehicles ever made. Colors of the era are largely subdued however, and one car must have been recently painted since the odor of fresh paint was very noticeable near the show entrance.
I do miss the era of impressive hood ornaments.
We spent some time looking at the cars and talking to a handful of people. The rain definitely didn't spoil the show, but it did affect it. One of the biggest effects was that owners were often huddled nearby under ponchos and umbrellas. This often made them hard to identify, so talking with them was commensurately difficult. One dude finally retreated to his car to avoid the rain. With the warm temperatures, it must have been stiflingly humid.
Since I cut my teeth on British cars, I was really interested in the 95 Years of MG. Despite the bad weather, many cars came and several were quite rare pre-war models. One interesting car was a Saloon with custom coachwork, but made from an MG TD. Despite the enclosed cockpit, water still somehow made its way inside through the less-than-stellar British waterproofing (sorry - harder to see in the picture than I hoped) onto the dashboard.
One car had a super-cool mosquito hood ornament. I'm sure this is not original, but I fully approve!
This is usually a beautiful car, but with the top up, it has to be one of the most ungainly and disproportionate vehicles.
I really wanted to talk to the owner of this Magnette, since the age and color of the restoration was close to when I built and engine for a Magnette in my former life as a mechanic. At that time, we had one oil galley plug which was unavailable, so I made a temporary one out of a carburetor throttle shaft and some solder. With a bit of miscommunication, the car left the shop with this temporary plug. I subsequently drove with SO to the Cleveland area to do a more permanent repair. That trip was fun and the owner was amused by the situation. My boss was a bit terrified about what I was going to put on my time card for this, but as I recall it was only a small amount of time. I was really wondering if this was that same car. Alas, I could not find the owner nearby.
The other cars I was really interested in were the more modern classics. The rear end of the Ferrari Testarossa has to be one of the sexiest views in all of car-dom. And nothing says 1980's excess as well as this.
And perhaps one of the cars I was most wanted to see - always - was the Ferrari 308 (only since 328's are so much less common). Sadly the owner of the only 308 at the show had it enveloped in Visqueen. The plastic had clearly been put on the car after it was already wet, so its purpose was questionable. While the Ferrari 308 is the car I would most like to own, it is just a car and water won't kill it. There were far rarer and more expensive cars that were not covered at the show, so I must determine that the owner of this gem really doesn't deserve it. This was, frankly, the major disappoint of the show...
After a final pass-through of the cars (and one last hope that the 308 would be uncovered), SO and I headed out. On the way out, we stopped by a few cars outside and I noted a Ferrari 360 which had driven to the show (it was NOT covered). While the 328 prompts an inexpiable visceral reaction, and I might actually own one if I didn't spend so much of my life on 2-wheels, the 360 is a pretty amazing car in its own right. Given the lack of interesting cars in the parking lot, I was glad a few owners made the effort.
The bus ride back to the satellite parking was, thankfully, incident free. We took a more sane route home and returned to the more mundane weekend life.
The Cincinnati Concours d'Elegance was quite impressive. I see the allure of an invite-only event. Virtually all of the cars were top tier. But I think that also resulted in a loss of some of the charm. Without the daily drivers and cars with questionable provenance, the most impressive cars didn't stand out quite as much. The owners of the working-class cars often show much more enthusiasm compared to the well-heeled concours people - although I'm not sure how much the weather may have affected this. Perhaps I'll have to go again for a future year when hopefully the sun will be shining.
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